Hatake Toshiko's Story
by AquaN
Summary: Story of a young Konoha girl as she goes through life as Kakashi's younger sister. Contains OC characters, as well as a KibaxOC pairing.
1. The Beginning

_My first story…try not to bash P  
The –main- character, Toshiko Hatake, is my OC. I made her up. She belongs to me._

_The rest belong to Masashi Kishimoto  
_----------------------

Yawning, the silver-haired male arose from his bed. A few rays of sunlight hit him directly through the slightly open window. The adult closed the window with a grumble, then hopped out of bed and slowly walked towards the bathroom of his house.

Kakashi, one of Konoha's jonin, had just awoken into a normal morning. He would go and shower, change, eat breakfast, read his books, then go into the training grounds so he could train his pupils.

As he did his tasks, he was careful to not make much noise, for in one of the rooms, a girl of gray hair lay sleeping her bed. She was the younger sibling of the 26-year old male. Her eyes were that of sky blue, her skin fair. Over her right eye, a patch of hair dangled swiftly.

Sighing, the girl turned in her bed, her chest silently rising up and down to match up with the beat of her breathing. Finally, the moving stopped. Toshiko arose and looked around the room. "Well, it's morning." She yawned, stretched and then jumped out of her bed. She slipped her feet inside her blue slippers and began to walk towards the main hall. A slight squeak stopped her in her tracks.

"Khaki?" the young Hatake girl turned around to see a tan-colored pup standing in the doorway. The dog was wagging her tail slowly and whining loudly.

"I didn't see ya there, puppy. I'm sorry." Toshiko laughed and bent over, picked up her doggy, and petted her head slightly. "C'mon. Let's go into the kitchen and get some breakfast."

"Kashi!" Toshiko wandered into the kitchen, Khaki now cradled in her arms. She looked around, wondering if her brother had heard his childhood nickname being called out.

"I'm in here." Kakashi was in the kitchen, actually cooking, for once. Usually, it was his twelve-year old sister who did the cooking. Not today.

"Why…are you making breakfast? I usually do it." The young girl pointed out the obvious as she walked in and let her dog go eat her newly prepared meal.

"I don't have a reason not to." Kakashi mumbled to himself, then looked at his sister who was still staring at him. "What is it?"

"Your mask."

Kakashi looked over at his mask, which was lying on the counter. It had a few grease spots on it, and Toshiko knew that those wouldn't come off easily.

"I have another set. You know that." He looked over at his sister and smiled. This smile could actually be seen.

"Here's your breakfast. I'm not going to eat today- have to go train the trio." The jonin chuckled and sighed. "They know I'm late again, but oh well. See ya." He walked off into his room, grabbed another mask, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"That Kashi…." Toshiko laughed to herself, then messed with her breakfast. Suddenly, she looked over to the kitchen. The pan on the oven had burst into flames.

"KASHI!!" she yelled angrily, then jumped up onto her feet. "YOU DUMBA- oh forget it." She closed her eyes and concentrated on her hands, then did a set of seals. "Water jet jutsu!" she yelled, then watched as water came out of her right hand, quickly putting the fire out.

"Damn…." She sighed and began to clean some of the mess, then went back to finish her breakfast.


	2. Starting Training

"Where is that Kakashi?" Naruto paced around the training grounds, losing more and more patience with each step. "He should have been here by now! Why is he always late?!" he yelled and turned around to punch the first thing he saw, which was the trunk of a tree.

"Naruto, chill out!" Sakura sat down and looked up at the ever-energetic Uzumaki. "He'll be here, just wait." she sighed, also wondering where Kakashi was. She took a look over at Sasuke, who was sitting near a tree and staring into the distance. Of course, he never cared.

"But I can't take it anymore! Every day, he's always late! Can't he be early for once?!" the twelve-year old blonde sighed and leaned back against the same tree Sasuke sat near. "Man, what a dump." he muttered something else, then looked over at Sasuke. The Uchiha boy actually looked up at him, then glared. He returned to his previous stare and said nothing.

"Ok, team." Kakashi suddenly appeared in the distance. He calmly walked over to his students, then stopped not too far away from them. He was ready for Naruto's usual yelling.

"Kakashi sensei, we've been waiting for hours! And you show up like nothing happened?! Show up early for once!" Naruto jumped up and pointed at his sensei in a threatening way. This only made the jounin laugh. "Hold your breath, Naruto. Listen, I have a surprise for you three."  
Every student, including Sasuke, looked up to their sensei.

"What is it, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura blinked and tilted her head.

"Well, there's this girl..." Kakashi grinned. "She's going to join our team for the next few weeks. Now, I know that would make us a four-man team, but don't worry. I've got permission." the jounin smiled and placed his hands behind his head, then hummed silently. "Her name is Toshiko. She should be here soo-" suddenly, Kakashi went back to his tense position. "Crap."  
"Hm?" Sasuke looked up, waiting for Kakashi to tell the rest of his story. At the sudden interruption, he wanted to know what was going on.

"I haven't told her to come..." the gray-haired sensei blinked, then looked at the ground. He placed his palm on the ground, muttered a few words, and watched as a small brown dog appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Pakkun, go get Toshiko. She's at home. Be quick about it." Kakashi was quick with his orders, and the brown dog ran off.

His students looked at Kakashi silently, wondering what was going on.

"Alright guys. Relax for a bit. We'll wait."

-----------------

Back at the Hatake residence, Toshiko was training her dog, Khaki, to do some tricks. Not just the ordinary 'sit, stay, play dead' type tricks, but jutsu and other types of things that would eventually help them in the future. She had seen her best friend Kiba and Akamaru do some pretty cool things, so that's where most of her inspiration came from.

"C'mon Khak...we can do this." the young genin sighed and sat down. "You know we can. Let's try it one more time. Now, we're going to-" the young girl froze and turned around. She saw a little dog racing towards her.

"Pakkun?" Toshiko walked over to the brown nin-dog and picked him up.

"Kakashi...wants...you...at...grounds." The dog sighed and began to pant, then looked up and wagged his tail. "Will you come?" "Alrighty then." Toshiko smiled and looked over her shoulder. "C'mon Khaki." she smiled and put Pakkun on her head, then began to run down the narrow path with Khaki.

As she ran, she also ran into some people. First it was Kiba.

"Kiba?" Toshiko stopped and looked at her friend. "Hey Kiba-kun! Hiya Akamaru!" she laughed as the small dog whined a hello. "Where ya going?" Kiba asked, slowly pulling his hood off his head and flicking it back to reveal his brown, spiky hair.

"I need to go training...Kakashi's going to put me in some team to train with for a while." Toshiko blinked and looked at the Inuzuka boy. "I hope it's Team 8." she laughed and watched as Kiba gave a small smile. "Yeah...me too." he grinned and gave his friend a hug. "See ya around."  
After that encounter, Toshiko ran into Lee. Toshiko was the first one to scream at the sudden meeting.

"Whoa!" Rock Lee jumped back, then stepped forward. "You shouldn't be running that fast. Sure, it's a way to stay fit, but hey, you gotta chill." Lee smiled and gave his usual trademark- a thumbs up and a wink. "How are you, Toshiko-chan?"  
"I'm fine. No time, Lee. I'd love to chat..." Toshiko smiled and patted Lee's shoulder. "But I have to go. I'll talk to ya later!" Toshiko smiled and ran off into the distance, leaving a confused Lee.

"Ah well. I should go train with Gai sensei!" the young boy smiled and ran off in the opposite direction.

---------------------

Meanwhile, Team 7 was slowly losing patience.

"Kakashi sensei!" Naruto whined, kicking a rock out of his path. "We've been waiting for at least fifteen minutes. Where is this Toshiko?!"  
"I'm wondering the same thing." Kakashi murmured, then looked at his students. "She'll be here soon. If she's anything like her brother, though, you'll have to wait some more." he chuckled to himself as Naruto and Sakura fell back.

"Who's her brother?" Sasuke muttered, not even bothering to look towards his sensei as he asked the question.

"Kashi!" Toshiko suddenly appeared not far away. Everyone turned to watch the gray-haired girl run eagerly towards them. Khaki slowly trailed behind. "I'm here. Sorry I took a while." she grinned and rubbed the back of her head, then remembered that Pakkun was sitting on said head. "Oh, hey Pakkun. You can get off now."  
"Finally." the brown dog jumped off and ran to Kakashi, then sat down near his leg and fell asleep.

"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura. This is Toshiko." Kakashi smiled as he introduced the 'new girl' to the team.

"Hiya!" Naruto eagerly greeted, waving happily. Sakura soon followed as she gave a nod. "Nice seeing you." Sasuke just looked up and gave a simple nod. Toshiko just smiled at all of them, then looked up to Kakashi. "Thanks for letting me join, onii-chan."

"Onii-chan?!" Amazingly, all three genin shouted the same thing at the same time, every one of them shocked to a certain extent.

"Kakashi-sensei, this girl is your sister?!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed as Sakura fell back in shock. Sasuke just stared in disbelief.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Kakashi sarcastically spoke, then looked at Naruto. "You could have probably guessed that anyway. This won't get in the way, though. Even if she is my little sister, every one of you will still be treated equal. Understood?"

Each student nodded and looked at their sensei for further instruction.

"Well, since we have a new 'student', I thought we'd try a simple exercise." Kakashi smiled and got out one bell, then looked at Toshiko. The young girl smirked, knowing precisely what was happening. They did this at home all the time- and so did her dog, Khaki. She'd have an advantage.

"Now, you all know the basic concept of this. I have the bell, you try to take it in under an hour. There's a twist this time." the sensei looked at all four of his pupils. "Since there's an even number of you...you're going to have to find other methods of teamwork. Any suggestions?"  
The four genin thought for a while, suddenly Sakura spoke up. "Teams of two?"  
"Great." Kakashi grinned and looked at the four. "I don't really know how to split you four up...ah, never mind, I've got it. We'll put Naruto and Sakura together, then Sasuke and Toshiko."  
The four genin stared in shock. Naruto's stare was mostly disbelief and joy, while Sakura's was disbelief and rage. Finally, all of them spoke up to exclaim.

"WHAT?!"

"No more questions asked." The jonin sat back, held the bell in his fist, and started a stopwatch. "Ready...set...go."  
Immediately, Sasuke and Toshiko zipped to a corner of the training grounds, while Naruto and Sakura walked over to another spot.

The first battle had begun.


	3. Together to Train

This was it. The same old bell exercise, but with a twist. Two teams, one bell. Could any of them do it?

Since there was only one bell, it'd be very difficult to get. Groups of two would be aiming for the same goal- that one little round bell. Because there was only one object to obtain, Kakashi would be more alert than ever. That, and all of them had experience with this activity. But the gray haired jonin had made a promise to himself ealier in the day that none of them would get this bell that easily.

_"Ready...set...go."_

The second those three words had been said, each group spread out all over the training grounds. Sasuke and Toshiko stayed particularly far from the bell, while Naruto and Sakura did just the opposite.

"What's the plan?" Toshiko calmly said as she and her new teammate hid behind a thick brush of leaves among the trees.

"Haven't thought of one." Sasuke replied, not even bothering to take his eyes off the prize. "Do what you need to do. Just don't get in my way."  
"Hm." Toshiko grinned. "I was about to tell you the exact same thing." she smirked as she watched Sasuke look over at her, then smirk back. "Ok then, how about this?" The Uchiha shifted his eyes to look over at his sensei. "You go over and distract your brother. Take fighting measures if needed."  
"And you just sit around here and be emo?"

"No, I go and get the bell."

"That works too."  
And just like that, they were off. Toshiko zoomed over to the left, then looked silently at her brother. She sighed and walked over. "Hey Kakashi!" she waved. The jonin did not move. "Um...I was thinking..." again, she waved. Again, he did not move. "Well...wait- look out!" she jumped back as hundreds of kunais and shuriken flew at Kakashi's body. They hit the spot and the body toppled over.

"We got 'im!" Naruto yelled out, then laughed as he ran out in the clearing. "C'mon Sakura! Get the bell!" Sakura ran after Naruto, then searched for the bell. Toshiko stared in disbelief. "Kashi...?" she flipped the body onto its back, then frowned. A happy scarecrow stared back at her.

"Naruto, you dunce!" Sakura yelled, hitting the boy on his shoulder. "This is a scarecrow! You missed him _again_!" Sakura groaned loudly, then looked around. "Naruto? Man, where did the little punk go?"  
"GAAAH!" Naruto hung upside down from a rope in the branch of a tree. It was like the first day all over again. Kakashi smiled as he leaned against the trunk of that same tree. "Naruto, you do never learn, eh? I'm finding this rather amusing." he flipped a page of his favorite book, Come Come Paradise, and smiled as he read.

"PUT ME DOWN!" Naruto yelled loudly, trying to reach up to the knot to untie it. Maybe that knot-untying jutsu he had learned at the academy would come in handy.That is, if he could actually reach the knot first. Kakashi just left him there, then watched as Sakura jumped up and untied the knot. "Come on, you doofus. We have to try again." with that, she sped off into the bushes, Naruto following close behind.

Kakashi looked over at Toshiko, who was still by the body. "Well? Shouldn't you be with Sasuke?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow and looked at his younger sibling. "You two should be working to get this bell right now." he lifted the bell in plain view. "And you have fifteen minutes left."  
"_FIFTEEN?!_"Toshiko jumped up. "You can't be serious!" she walked over to him and looked up. "Listen, Kashi, it couldn't possibly have been that long. It only seemed like five minutes! I think you're wrong." the jonin blinked and looked down. "Are you suggesting that I'm a liar?" "Well..." the Hatake girl paused, then smirked. "Yes, I _am _suggesting that you're a liar!" she looked over the jonin's shoulder, then smiled as she saw Sasuke coming into view. He'd get the bell, she just needed to distract Kakash a little more. "See, Kashi, I can't recall the last time you told a true statement. Sure, there must be a lot of times, but this isn't one of them! There is no way in the world that it's already been forty-five minutes."  
"Fifty-five."  
"_FIFTY-FIVE?!_" Toshiko jumped back, making Kakashi chuckle. "Look, you're just wasting more time as you sit here talking to me. You have five minutes. There's something you're not doing, and guess what, Toshi? It's called _'teamwork'_. Now go on, and- hey!" he looked to his hand, noticing that there was no bell in it. He turned around and saw Sasuke, smirking in his usual smart way. He held the bell in his palm.

"Guess what, Kashi?" Toshiko looked up and gave him a friendly punch. "It's called _'teamwork'_."

---------------------------------

Happily the Uchiha and Hatake children sat, eating away as their lunch was placed in front of them. They took a minute to look up at Sakura and Naruto, who were over on the other side in the no-lunch zone. Toshiko sighed and looked at Sasuke. "You know, they really should get lunch."  
"Hmph." Sasuke took a bite out of his ramen, then looked over at his new teammate. "Losers don't deserve rewards, Toshiko." "In my book, they're not losers, but just people who tried their hardest at something and had a bad stroke of luck." Toshiko looked over at Sasuke, then nudged him gently. "C'mon. Please?"

The last remaining victim of the Uchiha clan looked up to the gray-haired girl, then frowned. "You do it." "Whatever, duckbutt."  
Sasuke quickly stood up. "What did you call me?"  
"Duckbutt. Ever seen your hair? Look in the mirror and you'll understand." Toshiko stood up and began to walk over to Naruto and Sakura, but was held back by Sasuke's hand. "No one ever calls me something like that and gets away with it." Sasuke snarled, ready to attack. Suddenly, Kakashi appeared between them. "Calm down, you two. Toshiko, you can't go over to them. They don't deserve the lunch."  
"But Kashi!" Toshiko looked at her brother and frowned. "A long time ago, someone told me that everyone is equal, no matter if they're losers or winners. I think I'm going to take that quote into effect." she smirked as she walked over to the others, knowing that the 'someone' had been Kakashi, long ago.

flashback 

_"KakashI!" Toshiko ran back home from a day at the Ninja Academy. She fell crying into her brother's arms. The older Hatake sibling semed surprised. Toshiko rarely cried. "What, what is it?" "Kashi, we played a fun game today, but I lost and they started calling me a loser! And they pushed me around and said they'll never play with losers again." she sat down in her brother's lap and buried her head in his soft chest._

_"Now, c'mon Toshiko, chin up. You're stronger than this." the jonin gently placed his hand beneath the girl's chin, then raised it up softly. "Everyone is equal in this world. Those kids were wrong to do that. Even if you are a loser at that game, it won't mean you're a loser at life. You're all of equal status, loser or winner." he smiled and ran his fingers through her hair smoothly.  
"Just remember that. It'll come in handy one of these days."_

/endflashback 

"Naruto, Sakura." Toshiko showed up near the duo and sat down next to them. Sakura, now enveloping a new hatred towards the new girl (since she had been Sasuke's partner for a full hour), glared silently. "What is it?"  
"I brought you guys food." she set the fresh bowls of ramen down near the two, then leaned back and supported herself with her elbows. "You guys deserve a meal. Kakashi's not usually fair...but we're different. Go on, eat."  
"Thanks Toshiko-chan!" Naruto grinned happily and began to gulp down his meal. Sakura just glared. "Hm. Is Sasuke-kun not coming?"  
"We talked it over, he didn't wish to come." Toshiko sighed softly, then stood up, ready to go to her other spot back with Kakashi and Sasuke. "Just eat."

As she left, Sakura took the ramen and began to slurp down a few noodles. _"I'm keeping my eye on you, Toshiko Hatake..."_

_-----_

The next day, it was the same procedure for the Hatakes. Wake up, shower, get dressed, try not to burn the house down while making breakfast, then go over to train.

Once again, both of them were late. Naruto Uzumaki was going to explode, but Sakura held him back. Sasuke just glared at Toshiko, still haven't forgotten her smart remark about his hairstyle the day before.

"Good morning everyone." Kakashi smiled as he approached the three, Toshiko slowly following behind. He looked at each of his students, then coughed. "Well, I've decided to, once again, try the bell test. Now..." he was going to continue, but Naruto jumped up. "_WHAT?! _Kakashi, we've done that at least twice already!! Why do we need to do it again?!" he began to pant, still pointing at his sensei angrily. The jonin just smiled. "As I was saying, now we're going to switch teams. Naruto will be with Sasuke and Toshiko will be with Sakura."

His students stared in shock.

"You guys need to be able to cooperate with all of your teammates, whether you like it or not. It's a part of living, you'll get used to it." Kakashi smiled, once again getting out a new bell. Meanwhile, all four of his students wondered how he had a new bell each day. "Ready...? Go."  
Immediately, the teams went to different places. Toshiko and Sakura hid silently behind a tree, while the boys went over by some bushes.  
"Ok Toshiko. Got any ideas?" Sakura commented as she looked at her teammate. Kakashi had been right. Even though a new hatred had been burning inside her towards Toshiko, she had to put that aside at the moment. That also made her think. Toshiko hadn't really done anything bad...she had just been the partner of the love of her life for a full hour. It wasn't like she liked him or anything, right?  
"We could try the distraction technique. Although I think he's already expecting it." the gray-haired girl thought for a while, then sighed and leaned back. "You can jump in the right, then attack. While he's busy there, I could come behind and attack as well. Maybe one of us would get the bell then."  
"That still seems pretty hard." Sakura pointed out. "Maybe you can get the bell as I'm attacking?"  
"Sounds good enough."  
"Ok then, let's go."

Over near the bushes, the guys weren't doing very well. They were barely communicating with each other.

"Sasuke..." Naruto was the first to speak. "How? How do we do it?"  
"It doesn't matter how. What matters it that we do it."  
"But how?"  
There was a long moment of silence.

"Use some clones. I have an idea."

------

Kakashi yawned and sat down near a tree, reading once again. "Hm...I never thought that would happen." he muttered to himself as he read. "I thought nothing would go down, but I've been wrong before." he sighed and looked at his imaginary watch. "It's been around fifteen minutes, I suppose." he yawned and looked around, unaware of the leaping Sakura behind him. The pink-haired girl managed to slice a kunai through him, but to her disappointment, it was only a scarecrow. Now Sakura was really getting fed up with this scarecrow trick.

"Arrgh!" Sakura shouted, then watched as four of Naruto's clones came to the scarecrow and decided to attack. "Naruto, it's a trick!" she shouted, making the clones stop in midair. They groaned and went throughout the plains, looking for Kakashi. Eventually, they poofed away.

Sasuke jumped into the scene, then stomped on the ground as he saw that their target had been just a fraud. Sakura looked behind her to see Sasuke. "What's wrong Sasuke-kun?" she asked, but he said nothing. Toshiko suddenly jumped in, then looked around. "Can't find Kakashi." she said, then blinked. Naruto sighed. "We won't be able to find him unless we all look for him." he said, then Sakura's eyes lit up. "He has a point."  
"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed, happy about the fact that Sakura had actually acknowledged one of his ideas. "Forget teams- we can all work together! Believe it!" he laughed, feeling quite pleased with himself. He took a second to look at Sasuke, who was looking back at him with a watching glare. "Hm." he only muttered, but nodded at the Uzumaki kid's idea. "_Actually, I could pretty much do this myself, but what are you gonna do?_" he smirked and walked towards his three teammates. Everyone was now in a group huddle.

After a while of talking, the quad settled in silence.

"So we're set?" Sakura looked at everyone with wonder, then locked her eyes on Sasuke.  
"Pretty much." Toshiko commented, taking a minute to move three locks of hair back behind her ear. These three locks were always in front of her right eye, but she didn't need them at that moment.  
"Hm." Sasuke said almost nothing, but just grunted and smirked.

"Alright, let's do it then!" Naruto laughed and jumped up. "We don't have a lot of time, so let's get going!"


	4. Achieve As One

The next day, it was the same procedure for the Hatakes. Wake up, shower, get dressed, try not to burn the house down while making breakfast, then go over to train.

Once again, both of them were late. Naruto Uzumaki was going to explode, but Sakura held him back. Sasuke just glared at Toshiko, still haven't forgotten her smart remark about his hairstyle the day before.

"Good morning everyone." Kakashi smiled as he approached the three, Toshiko slowly following behind. He looked at each of his students, then coughed. "Well, I've decided to, once again, try the bell test. Now..." he was going to continue, but Naruto jumped up. "_WHAT?! _Kakashi, we've done that at least twice already!! Why do we need to do it again?!" he began to pant, still pointing at his sensei angrily. The jonin just smiled. "As I was saying, now we're going to switch teams. Naruto will be with Sasuke and Toshiko will be with Sakura."

His students stared in shock.

"You guys need to be able to cooperate with all of your teammates, whether you like it or not. It's a part of living, you'll get used to it." Kakashi smiled, once again getting out a new bell. Meanwhile, all four of his students wondered how he had a new bell each day. "Ready...? Go."  
Immediately, the teams went to different places. Toshiko and Sakura hid silently behind a tree, while the boys went over by some bushes.  
"Ok Toshiko. Got any ideas?" Sakura commented as she looked at her teammate. Kakashi had been right. Even though a new hatred had been burning inside her towards Toshiko, she had to put that aside at the moment. That also made her think. Toshiko hadn't really done anything bad...she had just been the partner of the love of her life for a full hour. It wasn't like she liked him or anything, right?  
"We could try the distraction technique. Although I think he's already expecting it." the gray-haired girl thought for a while, then sighed and leaned back. "You can jump in the right, then attack. While he's busy there, I could come behind and attack as well. Maybe one of us would get the bell then."  
"That still seems pretty hard." Sakura pointed out. "Maybe you can get the bell as I'm attacking?"  
"Sounds good enough."  
"Ok then, let's go."

Over near the bushes, the guys weren't doing very well. They were barely communicating with each other.

"Sasuke..." Naruto was the first to speak. "How? How do we do it?"  
"It doesn't matter how. What matters it that we do it."  
"But how?"  
There was a long moment of silence.

"Use some clones. I have an idea."

-----------------------

Kakashi yawned and sat down near a tree, reading once again. "Hm...I never thought that would happen." he muttered to himself as he read. "I thought nothing would go down, but I've been wrong before." he sighed and looked at his imaginary watch. "It's been around fifteen minutes, I suppose." he yawned and looked around, unaware of the leaping Sakura behind him. The pink-haired girl managed to slice a kunai through him, but to her disappointment, it was only a scarecrow. Now Sakura was really getting fed up with this scarecrow trick.

"Arrgh!" Sakura shouted, then watched as four of Naruto's clones came to the scarecrow and decided to attack. "Naruto, it's a trick!" she shouted, making the clones stop in midair. They groaned and went throughout the plains, looking for Kakashi. Eventually, they poofed away.

Sasuke jumped into the scene, then stomped on the ground as he saw that their target had been just a fraud. Sakura looked behind her to see Sasuke. "What's wrong Sasuke-kun?" she asked, but he said nothing. Toshiko suddenly jumped in, then looked around. "Can't find Kakashi." she said, then blinked. Naruto sighed. "We won't be able to find him unless we all look for him." he said, then Sakura's eyes lit up. "He has a point."  
"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed, happy about the fact that Sakura had actually acknowledged one of his ideas. "Forget teams- we can all work together! Believe it!" he laughed, feeling quite pleased with himself. He took a second to look at Sasuke, who was looking back at him with a watching glare. "Hm." he only muttered, but nodded at the Uzumaki kid's idea. "_Actually, I could pretty much do this myself, but what are you gonna do?_" he smirked and walked towards his three teammates. Everyone was now in a group huddle.

--------------------

"So we're set?" Sakura looked at everyone with wonder, then locked her eyes on Sasuke.  
"Pretty much." Toshiko commented, taking a minute to move three locks of hair back behind her ear. These three locks were always in front of her right eye, but she didn't need them at that moment.  
"Hm." Sasuke said almost nothing, but just grunted and smirked.

"Alright, let's do it then!" Naruto laughed and jumped up. "We don't have a lot of time, so let's get going!"


	5. Change of Plans

Yawning, the awaiting jonin looked at his imaginary watch. "It's been a while. I think they gave up." he chuckled, leaned back against a rock, and began to read. "But, what do ya expect?" he sighed and read through his favorite manga, then stopped as he heard distant shouting. "Oh, what now?" he wondered, prodding himself up on his elbows. He looked around, then groaned as he saw a rather different sight before him. Sakura and Toshiko arguing.

"He's _mine_ Toshiko, and nothing's going to change that!" the pink haired girl snapped at the Hatake sibling. She took the time to push Toshiko back, then stand over her laying body as the young genin fell to the ground.

"Well, you know what? He actually pays attention to me! I have _never_ seen him even say hi to you, Sakura!" Toshiko replied back, then slipped beneath Sakura and jumped up behind her. She clenched her hand into a fist and punched her back. At least, it seemed like a punch. Toshiko had just done what was called 'a movie stunt punch'- she had pretended to punch Sakura, and Sakura had fallen forward as if she had actually been hit.

"Hah, as if!" Sakura actually grabbed Toshiko's collar and dragged her close. "You're going to get it, you know that, don't cha?"

"Girls." Kakashi coughed and stood up, then simply walked over to the 'fighting' duo. He bent over and examined the two closely. "I really can't say that I wasn't expecting this, but I am shocked. You have completely forgotten the purpose of this assignment in less than thirty minutes. Have you anything to say for yourselves?"  
The jonin stood up straight and crossed his arms, then looked down at the two kunoichi. He expected shameful and guilty looks, but he only received evil and sneaky stares.

"Kashi..." Toshiko spoke up. She looked up at her brother. "We have not forgotten the purpose of the assignment. It's all about teamwork."  
"And trust me." Sakura folded her arms. "We know teamwork."

Out of nowhere, Naruto and Sasuke ran towards Kakashi. Sasuke jumped over his sensei's head, creating an addition to the distraction. Meanwhile, Naruto snuck over an snatched the bell clean from Kakashi's hands. The sensei turned around, confused at everything that was going around him. Finally, when the four genin stood in front of him with pride, he understood. He sighed, massaged his forehead with his free hand, then shook his head. "Fine then. Lunch for all four of you."

---------------------

"This is a first." Kakashi said as all four genin happily munched on their lunches. Even Sasuke had a smug grin on his face.

"All four of you actually learning something without me emphasizing it over and over again. This should be made into a book." he smiled smugly and took out his rendered edition of Icha Icha Paradise. "And speaking of books..."  
"Gmph, Kakashi, read the other one!" Toshiko said, still slurping up some ramen noodles. She friskly waved her hand and continued to eat. "I've seen you read that one at least 749,360,384 times."  
All the other three genin froze in their tracks. "_AT LEAST?!_"

Toshiko smiled faintly, a sweatdrop appearing in the back of her head. "Yes."  
"Well, I'm done!" Naruto grinned, leaning back and putting his arms behind his head. "Those seven bowls of ramen do hit the spot!" he rubbed his stomach with pleasure, then watched as his teammates shook their heads.

"Class dismissed." Kakashi said, then helped Toshiko up. "Ok Toshiko, say good bye to your teammates. Forever."

Everyone stared.

"Forever?" Sakura asked in surprise. Inner Sakura was far from disappointed. "_WOOHOO! No more Toshiko Hatake! I can have Sasuke to myself all over again! HAHAHAHA!_"

Sasuke looked up, eager to find out if Kakashi was actually telling the truth.

"Nah." Kakashi grinned. "Not forever. But, she won't be joining our team again for a long time. Toshiko's going to have to go train with the other teams, see how she does there." he placed his hands in his vest pockets. "When she's finished, she has a choice. Join one of the teams she trained with, or she can go and make her own team. So far, the second choice isn't very possible." he looked over to Toshiko, who sighed and stuck out a hand.

"Nice training with you guys." Toshiko said and firmly shook Naruto's hand. She shook a relunctant Sakura's hand as well. When she reached over to Sasuke, she crouched down and grinned. "Keep it up, duckbutt. Kay?"  
Sasuke smirked, then looked up at Toshiko. "Hm." he nodded, then allowed Toshiko to give him a pat on the shoulder.

Toshiko stood up, then looked at Kakashi. The mentor smiled and grabbed her hand. "Come'on. You start training with Team 10 tomorrow." he said as they walked off into the distance.

"Well, time to go then." Naruto said, then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sasuke grunted softly and walked away in the opposite direction of where Toshiko and Kakashi had recently left. Sakura stood still for a while, then followed Sasuke's trail. After a few steps, she turned around and looked at the trail before her._"Girl- be careful. Ino's tougher than she looks, as you'll find out tomorrow."_

-------------------

Early the next morning, a happy dog bounced up on the bed before her. Khaki, the tan dog, had been urged on by Kakashi to go on and wake Toshiko up. Being the girl's faitfhul nin-dog, annoying her owner was the last thing on her mind at all times. But of course, when you bribe a young dog with a huge piece of steak, you can get Khaki to do just about anything. The proof was going to be revealed in about ten seconds, which would be all the time the canine needed to crawl up near Toshiko's face.

Stealthily yet quickly, the tan pup sneaked up from the covers. She moved quickly to the right as Toshiko's hand swiped at her. Apparently, the girl could have been having an active dream. This was a factor as Khaki tried to get near her master's ear. It took more than ten seconds, but the dog was now neatly positioned by her master's head. She seemed to cough a little to get her vocal cords all straightened out, then jumped up on four legs.

**"WAAKKEE UUPP!!"**

"Gaahh!" Toshiko immediately arose from her bed, tossing the covers everywhere around her as she jerked upright. She began to pant heavily, then looked to her right. Khaki smiled and wagged her tail as she sat next to her friend.

"Khaki! Ugh...why did I teach you how to talk?!" Toshiko screamed at herself, then laid back down and covered her head with her sky blue pillow.

"C'mon!" Khaki barked, using the few words available in her small vocabulary. "Up!" she whined, nosing Toshiko's neck with her cold, wet nose. Toshiko only resisted and covered herself up even more. This forced Khaki to begin to bark madly, tug at the pillow, and tug at her owner's night clothes.

"Fine!" Toshiko yelled after a few good minutes of torture. She mumbled and jumped off her bed, then rubbed her stiff neck. "C'mon Khaki. I have to go ahead and get dressed, for today I train with Team 10..." she yawned as she spoke, then limped across her room. Suddenly, Kakashi burst in unexpectantly.

"New change of schedule!" Kakashi proudly grinned, as if it was going to make Toshiko wake up happier. It wasn't.

Toshiko just yawned and tried to get past her brother, but the jonin held her back. "Today you're not going to train with Team 10. You're going to my team one last time. We're going to make you spar with the three."  
The young Hatake blinked. "You're serious? You're making me have a battle with Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura?"  
Kakashi nodded. "You'll get tired, but it's like a final test. Once you're done, we can move on to the next team. " he folded his arms across his chest and smiled. "This might take all day. Maybe a little bit of tomorrow, perhaps. But when you're finished, we can, as I mentioned, continue and move on."  
A loud moan was heard coming from the small opening that was Toshiko's mouth. A small groan soon followed. "But Kashi!"  
"I didn't make that decision. I have to do what I'm told, just as you have to do what you're told." Kakashi tapped his foot, then took his right arm and placed it on Toshiko's shoulder. "Hey, you'll be fine. I have faith in ya. Now get dressed- you look like a dump." he smiled and, with his left hand, ruffled the young girl's hair. A laugh escaped the gray-haired child as she ran over and gave her brother a hug. She looked up at the jonin and grinned sheepishly. "Ok."

---------------

"He. Is. LATE!!!" Naruto yelled once again in agony. The spikey-haired blonde paced around, his patience becoming weaker with each step. Finally, the young boy sat down and sighed, letting his breath escape him slowly. Sakura sat beside him, trying to ignore her annoying team member. She wanted to retaliate with some snappy comeback to his annoying ways, but she just stayed silent. To take her mind off of Naruto's blondeness, her eyes wandered over to Sasuke, who sat not far from them. The young pupil was sitting down with his legs crossed, his elbows propped up on his knees, and his head resting on his palms. His stare was focused on the horizon that lay before him.

"Why is he always late?! It's REALLY starting to annoy me!" Naruto raised his voice as he saw that no one was paying attention to him and his rantings. Kakashi being late was enough anger in his system, but if there was another thing he didn't like, it was being ignored. "WHY!?"

Sakura finally snapped and jumped up. "YOU'RE really starting to annoy me, Naruto!" she raised her hand and gave Naruto a whack outside of his head. The young boy yelled and slammed into the ground. This was so sudden, even Sasuke had to smile.

"Well, we're here." Kakashi smiled as he appeared out of nowhere. Toshiko was right beside him.

"Why are you always late, sensei?!" Naruto yelled, shifting into a standing position. He growled as he waited for an answer to his constant question. "I see no reason to be late every single day!"

"HEY!" Toshiko suddenly yelled out. "He has a better reason than you could ever imagine, Narutard!" the young girl snapped, making Naruto's angry frown turn into a questionable one. As she received confused stares, Toshiko sighed and lowered her head to stare at the ground. Indeed, Kakashi did have a good reason for being late, as he always did...

flashback

_Toshiko and Kakashi began to slowly walk towards the training grounds. It was now seven o'clock- an hour after they had woken up not long before. The two Hatakes were headed towards Toshiko's last day of training with Team 7. Well, really, she wasn't training. She was going to fight each individual member of Team 7, to determine her status in fighting._

_Finally, they reached the cross in the road that had two ways. You could go left and go to a nearby monument, or you could turn right and go to Kakashi's usual training grounds. Toshiko started right, but Kakashi turned to the left._

_"Kashi! Wait! We're supposed to go right!" Toshiko called out._

_"I need to go here first." Kakashi gravely said. His sister had no choice but to follow._

_After a few minutes of walking, they reached it. A giant circle-like monument stood before them. It was coated in a deathening tone of dark gray, and scratched within its surface were the names of several individuals._

_"Kakashi...?" Toshiko asked softly, watching the as the sharingan user slowly walked towards the monument. He stopped two inches from it, then knelt down on one knee. He bowed his head, a sense of sadness and strange guilt overpowering his body. He shivered as he thought like tears were going to pour of out his one visible eye. Kakashi kept his eye on the ground as he moved his right hand and slowly picked up some of the soil. The jonin sighed and made his right hand into a fist._

_"Toshiko. This is where Obito's name is inscribed. You know about him."  
_

_The young girl gasped. She knew. She knew that Obito Uchiha was one of Kakashi's team members when he had been young. It had been him, Kakashi, and a girl named Rin. In a horrible accident, Obito was crushed and slowly endured a painful death. It was Obito that had given Kakashi that sharingan in his left eye. But the sharingan wasn't the only thing that Kakashi received that lonely day. He had received an everlasting memory that he could not erase, and a solid heart that had been torn into halves. _

_"When he died, they sent a ninja to write his name here, with the others that died. A long time ago, I swore on his deathbed that I'd never forget him. That he would be in my memories and that I would come here every day. I haven't broken that promise."_

Kakashi slowly stood up, facing the grave. He reached out his right dirt-filled hand, and using his index finger, touched Obito's name, making a small trail of dirt as he traced over his friend's name. With a sigh, he bowed his head once more. "See you tomorrow." he whispered, then turned around to look at his young sister. She was staring at the monument, but the minute their eyes met, she lowered her eyes to the ground. This made Kakashi grin as he walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "C'mon. We have to go train."  
And then they left the grave.

endflashback

"Well, what is it then!?" Naruto yelled out, still angry. "If he has such a good reason, why doesn't he just say it right now?! HUH?!"Fumes were coming out of Naruto's head as he awaited an answer. He received none.

"Now, listen up." Kakashi said, quickly chaning the subject. "Toshiko's back for one last test. She's going to fight each one of you. This will test her ability. Ready?"

His team stared in shock. Sakura had her mouth dropped open, Sasuke's eyes were wide, and even Naruto couldn't believe it.

"Sakura. You're up first." Kakashi grinned as he watched Toshiko. She was already in a fighting pose. Sakura didn't take long to join either.

"Ready to lose, Toshiko Hatake?" Sakura chuckled. Toshiko just smirked. "Ready as you'll ever be."


	6. First Fights

_"Ready as you'll ever be..."_

Sakura blinked as Toshiko's words zoomed in her head. "As I'll ever be?" she asked, but no response came from the awaiting girl. Instead, a punch to the gut was thrown.

The pink-haired genin stumbled back, shocked by the sudden attack. On her terms, it really wasn't fair- she had striked when Sakura wasn't even ready! But Toshiko's next comment only made her state of mind worse.

"I thought my brother had taught you to always be ready for an attack." The young girl reached behind her knee and took out a kunai, then twirled it and held a tight grip upon it. "I guess you _are_ as ignorant as he says."

"Ignorant?!" Sakura yelled, then reached by her hip and took out two kunais. She snarled and lunged towards Toshiko, kunais in hand. She raised them up high above her head, then slashed her arm through the air in attempt to get her opponent from the side. Her opponent took her own kunai and blocked the attack, but she could not block the second kunai that made a clean cut on her exposed arm. This set her back and made her back away. The injured kunoichi growled and gripped her right arm, then looked at the wound left behind. It was a vertical line with a few intersecting scratches at the top and bottom. Toshiko knew that this cut wouldn't just scab and fade away- she knew that this one would stay behind. It would leave a scar.

The victim glared at the attacker.

There were no words spoken. No thoughts crossed through any mind. There was just attack after attack.

First, Toshiko decided to retaliate and ran back, her kunai still in her fist. She had slashed through Sakura's shoulder, but had only managed to cut a bit of the cloth covering her shoulder blade. After that, she had locked onto her target and walked around her, merely trying to get her opponent to be dazed. When she hadn't succeeded, she just began to attack, throwing punch after punch and kick after kick. Sakura had defended herself by doing the same thing. They were at equal.

Finally, it had been thirty long and hard-fought minutes into the battle. For the young kunoichi the minutes had seemed like hours, and that didn't help their state of being. They were both parallel to each other, panting, each trying to catch their breath. It had only been half an hour, sure, but when you fight hard and try to survive, it doesn't seem at all like that.

Sakura was the first to speak.

"I...won't...lose." she had panted, looking up at her opponent. "Not to you."

Toshiko had only smirked and lifted her hands. Then, she had made a seal. Another. Another. Horse. Ox. Dragon. Monkey. Another. Another.

"Water...jet...no jutsu!" Toshiko yelled, pleased with the fact that she had saved up most of her chakra for this. She stretched out her hands in front of her, then watched as blasts of water shot out from her palms and onto Sakura's undefended body.

The force of the blast was strong enough to knock both of the girls back. Toshiko stumbled back and fell, but caught herself and limped back up. Sakura flew towards a tree and slammed hard, then slipped down the bark slowly. A small trail of blood began to form on the left corner of her mouth, where a dried trailed previously lay.

Finally, Tohiko realized how much that force was. She saw not only how much it affected Sakura, but herself as well. So, as the birds chirped and the wind whistled, Toshiko sat down and coughed, spitting out one drop of blood before wiping her mouth and shifting her sky-blue eyes to gaze up at her temporary sensei.

"I guess it's clear enough." Kakashi said, walking onto center stage. He stuck his hands in his vest pockets and looked over to Sakura. "Sakura, you see that you lose. Toshiko has passed the first round."  
Inside, Toshiko's inner emotions leaped in joy and sang a tune of victory. Outside, Toshiko could only nod meekly and warily rise to her feet again. Sakura could only do the same, but her inner self was really shouting in disbelief.

"Nice..job." Toshiko said, finally raising her head for the first time after the blast. She raised her blood-stained hand and glared, trying to see if her opponent would actually shake it. To her surprise, the girl didn't even hesitate as she took her own bloodied hand and shook firmly.

The older Hatake sibling looked towards the two girls, then put his left hand on Toshiko while his right hand when on Sakura's shoulder. "Ok then. Let's go rest." he directed them towards a small shady spot where the kunoichi began to relax. They were tired, hungry, and obviously thirsty. But neither of them raised their voice to ask for anything.

Even though they spoke none, the two boys decided to join them. Naruto took his chance and sat next to Sakura, then let her lean her head on his shoulder for a minute as she rested. Sasuke simply sat near Toshiko and stared at her eyes. She looked up and met his gaze, then nodded. They both looked down towards the ground, then began to mess with the blades of grass that sat gently near their feet.

--------

"Ok, it's been an hour." Naruto yawned sleepily, stretching his arms to the sky as if he wished to get a tight grip on the clouds and rise to the heavens. He jumped up and wobbled a little, but then rolled up his bright-orange sleeves as he regained his balance. Having just woken up, he was still a little shaky. After that, he folded his arms across his chest and stared in wonder at his mentor. "Can we continue, Kakashi-sensei?"  
"We can..." Kakashi mumbled, reading his book, as he had been for the past hour. "Don't know if Toshiko wants to, though."  
"Well, we'll just ask her." Sakura muttered, just now waking up. She looked over to Sasuke's spot. He wasn't there. She could also tell that Toshiko wasn't next to him, because she wasn't there at all either. "Where is she? And Sasuke?"

----

"Raaarrggh!" Toshiko yelled, firmly kicking the trunk of the tree. She muttered something under her breath, then turned around and kicked the tree again with her other leg. She yelled a cry of battle as she then jumped up and repeatedly punched the hard bark, then kicked it rapidly. With a sigh, she then stopped and stepped back. Her blood-stained hands had told her to stop. But that wasn't the only thing that made her cease her small training period.

"You're going to hurt yourself." the black-haired genin leaned against the trunk of the tree not far from her target. He closed his eyes, smirked, and looked over at her.

"Whoever I fight next I'm not planning to lose to, Sasuke." Toshiko growled, then walked over to the Uchiha child. She joined him in the leaning position. "Whether it be you or Naruto. I hope it's you, though. Hopefully I'll get the best for last." she smirked jokingly and looked over to Sasuke, who was busy staring into the distance.

With a sigh, Toshiko crossed her arms. "We should go back, huh?" she asked, watching as Sasuke shifted his eyes to look over at her.

"Ladies first." he mumbled, stretching out his arm. She said not a word as she began to walk back to the others. Sasuke soon caught up and looked over at her.

"Quick question."  
Toshiko froze and looked over at Sasuke.

"Why do you keep calling me duckbutt?"  
A laugh escaped from the young girl. She couldn't help it- she had a feeling in her gut that the question was going to be something like this.

The smug grin that usually appeared on Sasuke's lips now appeared on Toshiko's as she began to walk forward. "Because, my dear teammate, your hair is the reincarnation of a duck's butt. You have to admit it." she laughed and ruffled his hair, then began to run faster. Sasuke had to smirk. "You're such a loser!" he yelled, chasing after her. They both had to smile as they ran across the field, eventually reaching the others. When they got there, Toshiko looked over at her comrade, who stared back at her and nodded. Their stare was all they needed to communicate.

"_We're not friends. Just teammates that get along. Let's remember that._"

"Where were you?" Naruto suddenly yelled out as he saw two shadows appear from the forest. He jumped up and folded his arms. "Toshiko, Sasuke, you've got some explaining to do!!"  
Sakura sighed and looked over to Toshiko. With a glare, she silently prayed that nothing had happened. She didn't want her sensei's sister to have a crush, even a small one, with the love of her life. Ino was already enough competition, knowing that once they had been friends and now they were soul enemies. Sakura just didn't want her new acquaintance to turn into another enemy for her.

Kakashi just stared at his two students. He glared down at his open book, then slammed it shut and put it away as he looked up at the two ninja. "Well, speak for yourselves."

The two said nothing as they walked over to their previous sitting spots. After a while, they grey-haired kunoichi looked up to her mentor and spoke quietly. "Training."  
"Well then." Kakashi coughed and put his gloved hands in his pockets. "That means you have to fight one last ninja. For today. Tomorrow you'll fight the final third. Now let's see..." he picked up his left hand and rubbed his masked chin with it, then snapped. "Naruto."

"Me?!" Naruto yelled, standing back. He rubbed the back of his head. "But...aw fine. How could I lose? Ok Toshiko! You're on!"

Now the two ninja stood facing each other. Naruto had the most determined look on his face, but Toshiko was quite calm. Finally, Kakashi's voice arose.  
"GO."

Naruto launched first. He made a seal and winked. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he yelled, making about seven clones appear next to him. This didn't surprise anyone one bit- everybody knew that he'd try his best jutsu first. Naruto was just that predictable.

The clones all took out kunais and lunged towards their target. Toshiko just stood still. Eventually, when they all reached her, she ducked down and watched as two of the clones ran into each other, making themselves disappear. Then, she jumped up and took out a shuriken, throwing it in a frisbee manner. This style of throwing helped the shuriken make a full circle and destroy four of the clones. The last clone ran behind her and began to kick her down to the dirt. It succeeded. Toshiko wouldn't stay down for long, though, as she turned around and kicked the clone out of her way. She jumped up and faced Naruto, then began to spar.

They both had their kunais out and were lunging at each other. They'd kick, punch, and occasionally, Naruto would make a clone or two to help him. They'd disappear rather quickly because much chakra wasn't used, though.

Then, Naruto had a burst of energy. He jumped up, made eight clones, and lunged towards Toshiko. All nine versions of Naruto began to repeatedly beat the girl to the ground. Toshiko could only block about two, but the rest got her good. One took turns kicking her left side, the other kicking her right. Two others punched her from behind and two others from the back. The other two were blocked, but Naruto took the time to jump up and throw an upward kick to her chin. Toshiko flew to the sky, rising to the heavens about fifteen feet. While she was up in the air, she managed to move her hands swiftly and perform a few seals. Finally she landed down and hard onto her left side. Naruto grinned as he looked at his laying opponent. Sakura and Kakashi stared in amazement, while Sasuke just smirked.

"It's..not..over." Toshiko chuckled, then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto gasped and jumped back. "A clone?!" he yelled, then turned around. Toshiko leaped from behind him and kicked the back of his neck.

Knockout.

The blonde Uzumaki fell to the ground, grasping the dirt. He snarled and jumped up, but wobbled and fell to the ground on his behind. He yelled in agony, then punched the ground. "Cheater!!" he yelled pointing at Toshiko, who sat laughing.

"Naw, Naruto, I just got lucky."

"Nice job, Toshiko." Kakashi smirked. "And you didn't stain yourself with blood this time. Whoops, never mind, yes you did. See? Right there, on your sides, where he repeatedly kicked you." he grinned, then caught Toshiko's cold stare. "Anyway, nice job." he chuckled and patted his sister, then helped Naruto up.  
"Let us all rest again."

------------------

"This...sucks..." Toshiko panted, leaning on Naruto for support. The blonde didn't seem to mind as he happily nibbled on his fresh bowl of ramen. "I can't...believe...I have to fight ya tomorrow." she continued, looking over to Sasuke. Her breaths came short and quickly, but one last one let her breathe a sigh of relief. Suddenly, she began to cough, making everybody except Sasuke turn her way. Kakashi was the first to speak. "Toshi, you ok? Toshiko!"

This small cough lasted for a while, but she eventually stopped. "Yeah. I'm fine." she weakly smiled, then looked down at her ramen. She pushed it aside for Naruto, then looked up to Sasuke. Her eyes glared a bit as his cold gaze met hers.

"Can't wait for tomorrow." he smirked, then stretched out his hand. Sakura quickly switched her eyes to stare at Toshiko. _"If you shake his hand, Toshiko, I swear..."_

Toshiko, completely ignoring whatever Sakura may have been thinking at that moment, reached over and shook his hand weakly. Then, she clenched her hand into a fist and playfully punched the open palm.

"Can't wait."

---------------------

Silently, the two siblings now walked down the path that winded towards the Hatake residence. After a long moment of no talk, Kakashi spoke up.

"Some fights you had today." he mumbled, looked over at Toshiko. "Although I still don't understand why you wasted your Water Jet no jutsu on Sakura."

Toshiko began to chuckle. "Me neither. But I'll surely use it on duckbutt tomorrow."  
Kakashi actually laughed. "I have to admit. His hair does look like a duck's butt..."

And they laughed all the way home.


	7. Sasuke's Spar

At home, the two siblings were awaiting the next day. Kakashi was eager to see what would happen, but Toshiko didn't think too much about it. She would rather wait calmly than be inpatient.

"Aren't ya nervous?" Kakashi curiously asked as he flipped a page of his favorite novel. He chuckled slightly under his breath as he continued to read, but pay attention to any other sounds at the same time.

Toshiko's reply came later than expected. "Not...really." she blinked and sat next to him on their favorite couch. It was a dark shade of green, with pillows that were a lighter shade than the base color. The pillows had small attachments of strings at each corner that were a dark blue haze. On the pillow, gold thread embroided the sides and spun around in the center to make colorful and vibrant designs. It was these designs that caught Toshiko's wary eye and made her scoot over to the closest pillow. She picked it up and hugged it, placing it on her lap as her arms draped across the furry square.

Her sky blue eyes focused on the pillow for a minute, then shifted over to the reading jonin. "Well...I am sparring with the last member of the Uchiha clan...who has a lot of experience and was marked the Ninja Academy's number one student..." the young girl's voice faded as she lowered her head into the green pillow. Her gray hair smoothly fell forward, covering her left, unexposed eye.

"Nah, I'm not nervous at all." a smile covered her face as she shifted her position to look up at Kakashi. "Why? Are you?"  
This sudden question made the sharingan-bearer laugh.

"Me? Please." Kakashi scoffed and folded his legs underneath him, then leaned on the right arm of the couch. Now he was in a more comfortable position for reading. "You have to be kidding me," he continued, his voice growing clearer as he took the time to remove his mask while he spoke. "I'm not worried. Curious, yes, but not worried. I know what you're capable of, Toshiko. Something tells me that you're going to be able to hold up that spar pretty well." a smile darted across his face as he gently shut the book and placed it on the table beside the couch. Then, he turned around and looked over to his younger sister, then he shifted quickly and grabbed Toshiko's shoulders. He suddenly threw her off the couch and jumped up on his two feet.

Toshiko quickly reacted to this by doing substitution jutsu as soon as she hit the ground. A log thumped in her place as the real kunoichi jumped up and lunged at Kakashi's back. Then, she glomped the older male and clung to him like a fly landing on a spider's web.

A grin could now be seen on Kakashi's maskless face.

"See what I mean?" he looked over his shoulder to stare at his 'student'. "You have cat-like reflexes." he smirked silently to himself, then began to chuckle. The reason for his sudden laugh was that he knew something that she did not, for ever since he had taken care of her, there had been a secret that he had confined from his sister.

His sister was the host of the ten-tailed lions; two elemental beasts that had jumped into her body when she had been five. It had happened while Toshiko had been residing in Orichimaru's layer years before. Kabuto, a young and restless 9 year old back then, had taken care of the girl that was six years younger than he. At the time, Kakashi was busy with his own ninja training, so the Yakushi child had to care for the girl. Kabuto had been training to be completely loyal to Orichimaru during that time, but secretly he still took care of the young Hatake. He even grew to silently befriend the child, and once promised to never let her be exposed to Orichimaru. Since Kabuto still had a bit of good in his heart, he was hoping that he could give the little girl a chance at life by letting her stay away from evil.

One day, Kabuto decided to see what would happen if he took two lions, fiddled with its blood cells, and turned them into demons. Possibly, he could make a whole new weapon for Orichimaru. The test worked and he put away the two lions, one with water element and once with fire element, in a large confinement in the basement of their current hideout. Toshiko happened to wander near the room one day and decided to poke around inside. The lion demons, dubbed Aqua and Fira due to their elements, immediately lunged at the available target. Now they could host a body and be of use.

The sudden burst of energy had completely collapsed the five-year old girl, and left her in a coma-like state. Kabuto showed up thirty minutes later to find a young Toshiko glowing vibrant colors of red and blue. Using all the power that he knew at the time, he managed to calm her down and settle her somewhere else. Since those demons had been made by the 11-year old Kabuto to work evil, he knew that she couldn't be near him anymore. He knew that if he could make evil, then he himself could be evil, and he had promised to never expose the young girl to such essence.

Since he was 11, he knew that the child's brother, Kakashi, would be around 16. Kabuto also knew that the older Hatake would probably be in ANBU, but he decided to take the risk of returning her back to her original home. So one day, he took Toshiko, wrapped in a blanket, and set her on the window of the Hatake residence. He then gave the girl a hug- the last hug he'd ever give anyone but himself. Then, forever trying to forget the girl he still cared for, he disappeared back to Orichimaru's lair and grew to become the sannin's personal assistant.

Kakashi had eventually found Toshiko near his house, figured out her history and that she indeed was his sister, and he took care of her ever since. He found out about the demon in a note that showed up near his door days later. It had been from Kabuto.

Now, eight years after that, he still hadn't let Toshiko know. He knew that she eventually had to find out, but it wasn't going to be soon.

"You're almost like a lion, in fact!" Kakashi laughed as he snapped back into reality. He tilted forward, flipping the girl over and in front of him. Then, he grasped her waist and turned her around so she would face him. Suddenly, he paused. "What? What's that look?"  
Toshiko now had an evil smirk on her face. This wasn't a very evil smirk- it was just a look that basically yelled '_you're going to get hurt now.'_

"Oh...nothing." Toshiko jumped up and kicked Kakashi's leg, forcing him to stumble forward a bit. Then, she jumped up again and slammed her fist onto his back, making him once again stumble forward. Kakashi, though, being more experienced, quickly substituted himself as a log, then turned around and pinned the girl onto the floor. He held her arm out, and his other hand was occupied on her neck, which he applied a bit of force to.

"You're just lucky I'm not Sasuke." he mumbled playfully, then let go and allowed the girl to warily stand up. He then jumped back onto the couch and looked at Toshiko. "So, ya ready for tomorrow?"  
Toshiko suddenly began to laugh. "Yeah, why not." she grinned and pounced on him, then wrestled momentarily until she found a good laying position. She placed her head on his left arm, then turned to face the couch and closed her eyes. She felt a smooth hand stroke her hair softly as she fell asleep.

--------------

"Good morning!" Kakashi cheerfully yelled in Toshiko's exposed ear. It was five in the morning, and like ordinary people, Toshiko was fast asleep in her bed. Well, of course, she _was_ asleep. Then Kakashi happened to burst in and scream at the top of his lungs into her eardrum.

"GAAAAAHHH!" Toshiko shot out like a rocket, then clung to her older brother. She shivered in shock, then looked over to her prime suspect. Her frown turned into a small snarl as she watched the smile on Kakashi's face grow wider. "I. Hate. You."  
"C'mon. It's time for you to fight." he mumbled, then shook her off and calmly walked out of her room. Two seconds later, as Toshiko was getting dressed, Kakashi walked back in. He was firmly and nicely dressed, from top to bottom. Toshiko blinked in confusion. How did he dress so fast?

--

Team 7 awaited in the fields. It was just another normal, average day. Only one thing was missing; Naruto's usual shoutings.

"I'm not even going to bother today." the blonde groaned and slipped down into a sitting position, then bowed his head and looked at the ground. "I'm tired of yelling. What's the point, anyway?"  
"You finally understand." Sasuke spoke, his usual cross-legged pose in hand. He closed his eyes as he rested his chests on his upraised fists. "You loser."

Sakura really wanted to say something to back up Sasuke's comment, but as usual, nothing was on her mind. With a sigh, she began to pace around the field. Finally, she spotted two figures in the distance. "There they are!"  
"About time." Sasuke scoffed, then looked up. He smirked in a fashionable way. "Alright. I've been waiting." 

"Hey guys." Kakashi grinned and waved his free hand. His other hand was safely tucked in the comfort of his vest pocket.

"And as you all know, Toshiko's final fight is today." he looked over to his sister, who was smirking to herself silently. Kakashi's sudden suspicion arose, but he said nothing. "Sasuke, are you ready?"  
"Psh." the young boy looked up to his sensei and jumped up. Then, he nodded.   
An approving grin appeared on Kakashi's masked face. He knew no one could see it, and so this grin grew wider. "Whenever you're ready, you're free to-"

He was cut off by a sudden burst of wind dashing by him. Kakashi blinked and looked around. Where was Toshiko and Sasuke?

They were on the open field, fighting already.

Toshiko and Sasuke had their turn of attacks. The female ninja would usually strike above the waist, but when the pattern seemed clear enough, she'd bend down and kick down below the knees. Once or twice she tripped Sasuke, but he would always kick while he was down, therefore making Toshiko fall as well.

One one of those kicks, Toshiko wasn't able to stand back up as fast as the other times. Sasuke took this chance to quickly perform a few seals. "Fireball no jutsu!" he yelled as he connected his index and thumb into the shape of an 'o'. He blew in that little hole, then watched as fire shot out from the little space. Toshiko couldn't move and was at once burnt by the sudden strike.  
"Argh!" she yelled, covering her face with her arms. She stood there for a while as she tried to get over what just happened. During that down time, Sasuke decided to attack with several kicks and punches, one of those attacks sending her flying back ten feet across the field. The young girl snarled as she skidded to a halt, then looked up at her opponent, who was looking down at her with his arms crossed. A smug look rested upon his face.

"You're not going to win..." Sasuke began to chuckle. The chuckle turned into a smaller, yet longer laugh. "Look at you. Just look at you." his usual smirk stayed on his face as Toshiko tried to stand. Finally, as she did, you could see a small trail of blood form on the corner of her mouth.

"Ha." Toshiko smiled and folded her arms. "We'll see." she then disappeared in a small dash. Sasuke began to look around, confused. Where did she just go?  
Suddenly, there was an echoing sound of laughter. It was Toshiko's laughter. It seemed to come from the sky, but anyone would know that she wasn't up there. "Duckbutt..." she chuckled, throwing Sasuke off-guard. Suddenly, another cry rang across the fields. "Water jet no justu!" she yelled, appearing beside Sasuke. She had been there the whole time. "Take this, duckbutt!" she exclaimed, sending giant streams of water shooting towards Sasuke. Since she was right next to him, the jets hit precisely their point, and with much more force. The force of the hard water stung worse than a hornet attack, and the ninjas went flying back. Even Toshiko, bearer of the water, was launched backwards, since the pressure had ammounted on both of them.

Toshiko hit a small bush that caught her and pushed her forward, making her fall on the ground. Sasuke kept going until he slid to a stop, ten meters away. There was noticable blood on him now. He snarled, not willing to give up yet. He jumped up and raised his arm, ready to use his chidori. A blue energy orb formed on his hand as he ran across the field, over to Toshiko. "Raaggghh!!!" he yelled as he hit his opponent square in the stomach with his powerful chakra burst. Drops of blood coughed out from Toshiko's jaw as she was launched back further into the bushes. Now Toshiko began to use her own power strike to hit him back. They sparred some more, now focusing more on genjutsu than anything else. Toshiko even proceeded to use her Water Jet Jutsu one more time. She managed to knock him down for five total minutes. During that time, she focused on getting her energy and chakra back.

Finally, they both sat down, panting heavily. Sasuke slowly rose to his feet, Toshiko soon following.

There was a long moment of silence.

But suddenly, Sasuke fell to his knees. He looked up at Toshiko who was about to fall herself, but she solemnly stood up.

"It's not...the end..." he grunted, still looking up at the kunoichi. She just smirked at him. "Duckbutt. You misunderestimate me." she bit her finger, drawing a bit of blood. Then, she put her hand to the ground and summoned up her best friend- Khaki.

"Khaki go!" she yelled, then watched as her dog began to run towards the fallen Sasuke. She bit his arm and shook her head violently, then Toshiko ran over and kicked Sasuke's neck, slamming his head onto the ground.

"Sasuke!" Sakura yelled in dispair. She stumbled back and held her hands up to her face. "Sasuke!" 

Sasuke did not move. After a while, he lifted his head, then looked angrily at Toshiko. He snarled as he felt the ninken jump on his head and sit happily. "You...you little..." he growled, ready to jump up.

"Sparring over." Kakashi mumbled, getting between the two. "Let's rest...specially you, Sasuke. You took some hard hits." he looked over to Toshiko and winked with his visible eye, then motioned the two over to the shady spot of the field.

----

"Nice job, Sasuke." Sakura commented as she looked over to the black-haired boy, who was bandaging some of his large wounds. There were only two- one on his arm and one on his side. The boy looked over to the pink-haired girl and frowned. Then, he continued on tending his cuts.

Sakura sighed and looked over to Naruto, who was excitedly chatting with Toshiko.  
"But how?! That's a lot of energy! You have to teach me! Sensei says I have to work on controlling my chakra, and you seem to do it pretty well!" Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head as Toshiko rubbed her sore arm. She cupped her hands together, blew inside them, and rubbed her hands together for heat. That, and she wanted the feeling back in her hands. "I just learned from the best, Naruto." she looked over to Kakashi, who smiled down at her. Toshiko grinned and looked over to Naruto. "But I'll help ya, sure. We'll meet up someday."  
"Yeah, that's more like it!" he grinned and raised his hand, sending a thumbs-up to the heavens. "Believe it!"  
Toshiko began to laugh, making Sasuke groan. "Please, don't say that again." he mumbled, then watched as Toshiko limped over to his side.

"Good fight." she commented, once again blowing on her hands for the feeling. Sasuke just stared at her.

"I didn't lose." he plainly said.

"I never said you did."  
"You never said I didn't, either."

Toshiko raised her hand to respond to that, but then began to think.

"Wha..?" she blinked, then began to chuckle. "Sasuke, you smart little..." she started, but stopped when she saw his smart smirk. She laughed and playfully punched his bad arm. On purpose. "Duckbutt."

"Grayhead."

"Duckbutt."  
"Grayhead."  
"Duckbutt."

"Class dismissed." Kakashi suddenly spoke before Sasuke could retaliate. He helped Toshiko up, then looked over to the others. "Bye bye. Toshiko won't be seeing you anymore."

Everyone stared.

"Yes. I'm not lying this time. She goes to Asuma-sensei's team tomorrow." Kakashi smirked and folded his arms, then watched as Khaki ran over and jumped on his shoulder. "Good-bye all." he said, then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Toshiko nodded at everyone. "See ya around." she whispered, then disappeared in a puff of smoke as well.

"Goodbye." Everyone said at the same time, then began heading home. Before Naruto disappeared, he grinned happily. "I get free training!" he yelled, dancing his way home.

Sakura snarled to herself. "She'll pay for what she did to Sasuke." she mumbled as she went to her house.

Sasuke finally disappeared, but before the smoke cleared, his voice could be heard. "Grayhead."


	8. Team 10 Meeting

5:45 A.M. Perfect time for Kakashi's wake-up call.  
The elite jonin dashed through the hall, his feet barely touching the ground as he reached the room at the end of the short corridor. It had been two days since his team's training with his sister, and today, they had to visit another team. He grinned slyly to himself as he cracked his knuckles. "A new day, a new awakening."  
"GOOD MORNING TOSHIKO!!!" Kakashi leaped through the door and pounced onto the bed, his fists punching the parts of the bed that were right next to his target. He laughed almost in an evil way as he threw back the covers. His laugh slowly faded.

There was nothing there.

"GOOD MORNING KAKASHI!!" Toshiko laughed as she leapt upon the confused ninja. She tackled him and rolled him off of her bed, then with both of her hands, she pinned his arms to the hard, wooden floor. "A new day, a new awakening!" she chuckled happily, knowing how she had beat her older brother at his own game.

"I don't like you." Kakashi mumbled, his cheek almost becoming one with the ground. Since his face was smushed against the wooden floor, it was hard to hear what he had to say on his mind. That was a good thing, thankfully, since there was a lot he wanted to say at the moment, none of them good.

"I know. Isn't it great?" Toshiko grinned as she jumped off, letting Kakashi easily get up. He rubbed the back of his head and patted the young girl. "Right. Anyway, we're going to Asuma's team today...I forget their number at the moment. You slammed my head so hard against your floor there I think I forgot math as well." he blinked, then smirked down at his sister who now had a fake concerned look on her face. Before she could say anything, Kakashi laughed and ruffled the girl's hair. "Get dressed, Toshiko. I'll meet you in the living room for breakfast." he began to walk out of the door, but froze as he heard a fake gasp behind him.

"You remembered my name, Kashi!" Toshiko cried out with a fake shocked expression. This only made Kakashi shake his head as he walked into the living room. 

--------

A good thirty minutes passed, and Toshiko was done with her to-do's. She had showered, changed, and fed all seventeen dogs or so. Now it was time to feed herself.

She swiftly dashed across the hall and into the living room, where Kakashi was sitting. He was on the couch, eating cereal as he watched one of his favorite shows. Not much to Toshiko's surprise, it was the same thing he watched every morning. He just watched commercials, so he could see the commercial that showed the upcoming _'Icha Icha Paradise' _movie. It was on as she walked by and sat down next to him, taking the bowl of cereal that sat beside him.

"You watch that every day!" she said with exasperation as she picked up a wooden spoon. Toshiko then placed the spoon in the bowl and slowly spun it, watching the little circles float around and around in the saucer.

Kakashi said nothing and only looked at her. Then, he slipped off his mask and drank down the last of his milk. He cleaned his mouth with his sleeve and tossed the bowl into a tray nearby. "Done. Now hurry up and finish your-" he froze as he watched his younger sister throw away the empty bowl. "Done." she grinned, then jumped up, grabbing Kakashi's wrist. "Let's go then!"

Khaki barked happily, as if to back Toshiko up. She pounced upon the kunoichi's head and wagged her tail, looking over at Kakashi with pleading eyes. "Awrrrr?"  
"Yeah, yeah, let's go." Kakashi pulled up his mask, hiding his laughing grin. Then, oblivious to the fact that Toshiko had his wrist, he clapsed his hands together and disappeared in a puff of smoke. He was more than surprised when he appeared next to Obito's grave and he found Toshiko still clinging to him.

"Toshiko..." the jonin sighed, then twirled his hand around to where he could hold her palm in his. "Just..." he paused and sighed. "I'll...I'll make it quick." he said, looking towards the monument. Then, he kneeled on one knee and looked down, shrouding himself in a deep sea of thoughts.

The thirteen year old simply looked over at her brother, sighed, and with concern, kneeled down as well. Her hand took a firm grip on his gloved palm as she bowed her head as well.

----------

"So, Asuma-sensei? When's he coming?" The sloth of the group, Shikamaru, plainly asked as he leaned back against the railing of the nearby store. The other day, Asuma and Kakashi had agreed to meet near the Ichiraku Ramen store, so that's where Team 10 was waiting.

"It's been a while..." Asuma had to agree, but as he popped another cigarette, his troubles went away. "He'll be here soon."  
"RGGH! I have something to say to that Toshiko-chan, hurting Sasuke like that." Ino the original blonde snarled as she hid her fists behind her back. She thought silently to herself, but her thoughts were interrupted by the notorious sound of Choji eating his heart away.

"CHOJI!" Ino yelled, hitting him on the side of the head. This didn't stop Choji from continuing to eat his ramen. "Not now, Ino, I'm eating!" he yelled angrily, then continued on his quest to finish the everlasting maze of noodles.

Ino only slammed her head onto Shikamaru's shoulder, who shrugged and placed his head on his palms.

"There he is." Asuma finally said as the cigarette fell out of his mouth and into his hand. He crushed it and threw it on the ground as the two Hatakes appeared.

"Hello, Asuma." Kakashi lifted a hand as he simply waved at his colleague. He smugly fitted his hand back into his pocket again, then continued to trot on. Toshiko just stared forward as she walked.

A small laugh came from Asuma's mouth as he stood straight up. "It's about time, Kakashi. Never thought you'd make it." he grinned as he folded his arms across his chest, then watched his fellow jonin friend rub the back of his head sheepishly as he thought of an excuse for his usual tardiness. "I had things to do. Anyway, here she is. I want her back in one piece, you hear me?"  
Yet another laugh escaped from the nicotine user. Only this time, the laugh was raucous and sounded a bit rough. "We'll make sure she lives through the days." he chuckled, then looked towards Kakashi.

Kakashi kneeled slightly and looked over towards Toshiko. "Don't give Asuma too much trouble." he reminded her, trying to get a smile out of the serious face that he saw. It worked, and Toshiko let out a small chuckle. "Okay onii-chan." she grinned, giving him a hug. Then, she watched as her brother disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Her eyes flickered over towards Team 10.

"Well, Toshiko.." Asuma smiled as he took out yet another cigarette. Toshiko coughed uneasily and walked over to the free spot not far from Shikamaru's lazy turf. She sat down and looked over to her temporary sensei. She listened intently as he spoke the next few instructions.

"I want you to just get to know your teammates...I know you've seen them before, at the Academy. You've seen about every genin and jonin in Konoha." he winked, knowing that Toshiko was a regular at the Academy and the base. When Kakashi had meetings, she was usually dragged along. She had a blast getting to see all of the teachers at one time.

"That's all we'll do today..." he mumbled, making a bit hard for him to hear as he spoke with the cigarette in his mouth. Then, Asuma looked over to his team. "I'll go buy lunch as you talk."

He turned around and left for the Ichiraku bar, then as he disappeared, Ino curiously looked towards Toshiko.

"Is is true? That you beat Sasuke at sparring?" She asked, clearly eager to know if what she had heard was true. Ever since the spar two days before, Naruto had been going around telling everyone of the Uchiha's "defeat". Toshiko and Sakura didn't clearly call it a defeat. Sakura said that Sasuke truly won, as for Toshiko- she called it an even match.

Toshiko couldn't help but grin. "Nah, not really. We had a good fight...we left each other with some wounds." she chuckled a bit, only to get pinned back by Ino. "You _hurt_ Sasuke?! WHY?!" she panted angrily, but this only made Toshiko laugh. "Chill, chill, Ino. He's alright, I saw him yesterday when he strolled by my house. Anyway..." she looked over uneasily over at Shikamaru, who clearly had no interest in their conversation. The gray-haired girl slipped out of Ino's grasp, then poked Shikamaru with her free hand. "Hey."

"What?" Shikamaru snapped, not really wanting to talk at the moment. He was thinking about important stuff like why Asuma-sensei had asked them to come here if they were only going to talk all day, and why they couldn't just go home or actually _train_.

"You alright?" Toshiko asked, seeing an angry stare appear on Shikamaru's usual tranquil eyes. She placed her hand on his shoulder, only to have it shoved off by him. "I'm fine, just bored is all. Why did Asuma-sensei need to bring us here? This is a drag." he sighed and shifted his arms behind his neck, then leaned his head back to rest it on his open palms. He closed his eyes, but quickly his eyes opened as he heard loud chomping.

"CHOJI!" Ino snapped, looking towards the happy eater. She groaned and sat back on the railing, leaving Toshiko to laugh. "Hey Choji," Toshiko began, only getting a muffled reply from the boy. "There's Asuma-sensei, and he's bringing ya food." she smiled as she watched Choji freeze, then clap wildly as Asuma appeared with a few bowls of ramen. Five, to be exact.

"Thanks Asuma-sensei!" the three main genin cheered, all slurping down their noodles. Even Shikamaru was pleased to have something else to do besides wonder.

"Thanks, Asuma!" Toshiko grinned and stared at the the bowl, then picked up her chopsticks and began to slurp down her section.

The mentor only replied with a small laugh and a smile, then began to eat, only stopping to smoke every once in a while. Once, he stopped to hear a small arguement form.

"Choji, that's MY bowl!"  
"Toshiko, give it! I'm HUNGRY!!"  
"You're always hungry!"  
"Ino, give me yours!"  
"NO!!"  
"Shikamaru!"  
"Get your own, Choji!"  
"AARRGH!"

Something told him this was going to be interesting.


	9. New Friends

_Authior's Notes:  
Well, this fanfic's going along nicely..._

_Yay._

_Now, entering into this story is Kakyo Tokiwa and Chimako Tsuma. They both belongs to my RL friends. So props to them two. Toshiko Hatake is mine._

_Other characters are © to Masashi Kishimoto._

_And I know so far there is no sing of KibaxOC, more like SasukexOC...but do not fear, there are no SasukexOCs in this :P There is a hint of KabutoxOC as well...and ItachixOC._

_Yes, I go for OC pairings. Le woot._

_And sorry, but there's gonna be a little of Choji bashing...sorry Choji fans! x3_

------------------

It had been an hour, and Choji had won. He happily sat in the middle of the road, munching his lunch away. On his right side there were two bowls- Shikamaru's and Ino's. On his left side, Toshiko's empty bowl rested.

Four stomachs growled- one happily, the others hungrily. Then, the three hungry learners toppled onto their backs.

"He ate all our food!!" Ino snarled, her arms stretched wide upon the pavement. She propped herself up on her elbows, then watched as Shikamaru sighed. "What a drag." he mumbled, not even bothering to get up. Typical, lazy Shikamaru.

Toshiko jumped up and scooted backwards, searching for the rail. Her hands grasped something and she leaned back against it.

"HEY!!" a sudden yell from behind the Hatake made her spring up. She looked up to see a girl wearing what seemed to be a yellow kimono. She had a katana on her back...and she had a sand village headband. So what was she doing in Konoha?!

"Uh, sorry!" Toshiko leaped back, accidently stepping on Choji's meal. The bowl shattered, leaving a very sad Choji. "...my...ramen..." he hung down his head, trying to contain himself from exploding. "No..." he mumbled, on the verge of a small sob.

The new girl scoffed. "Choji, you fat lard." she folded her arms, then looked over to Ino. "How's it going, Ino-chan?"  
"Good enough." Ino flipped her ponytail over to the side, then leaned back on the real hand rails. "I haven't seen ya around a lot, Kayko! Oh, by the way, this is Toshiko...she'l be our new teammate for a while." she mumbled the last part, then watched as Kayko stomped over to a standing Toshiko.

She did not move.

"Toshiko, eh?" Kyako smiled, watching as Toshiko extended a hand. "Toshiko Hatake." she smiled as Kayko's eyes grew a bit wide. "Hatake? You mean like, the daughter of the pervy jonin?"  
Toshiko now had to laugh. She hadn't heard that in a while. In fact, she had never been mentioned as the daughter of Kakashi. "No! I'm his _sister_. Anyway, and you are...?" she looked at her stretched out hand, then grinned as Kayko relunctantly shook it. "Kayko Tokiwa. Related to no one of importance." she put her hands in her pockets, then tilted her head as Ino began to speak.

"See Kayko, this is the one I told you about! She hurt Sasuke!" Ino yelled, waving her arms around and pointing towards Toshiko. A mark of anger appeared on her forehead. Kayko's smile faded as she stepped towards Toshiko. "Is that right?"

Toshiko wasn't scared, but she was curious as to what would happen. Solemnly, she nodded.  
Kayko stared for a while, then grinned and playfully punched Toshiko. "Nice! I've been wanting to hurt that little twerp for a while now." she grinned as she folded her arms and looked up into the distance. "I don't see how anyone can like him. His brother's much hotter..." a smile danced across her face as she began to think of Itachi Uchiha, the one that she so admired and loved.

The young Hatake stiffled a chuckle, then looked over to Asuma, who was looking pretty bored. He stood up, cigarette in hand, and began to speak. "Ok Team 10...I say you're pretty much dismissed. We'll most likely have a mission tomorrow, so we meet here." Asuma grinned, gave a wheezy chuckle, and disappeared.

The four genin looked at each other with a confused look. What now?  
Shikamaru yawned. "C'mon Choji...our dads are probably waiting for us. Meh..how troublesome." he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck in a tired fashion. Then, he extended a hand and stumbled a bit as Choji pulled it and got up. Then, they walked off together into the distance.

Ino smiled. "That Shikamaru."  
"That Choji..." mumbled Toshiko, looking down at her near-empty stomach. "He ate most of my food!"  
"He couldn't possibly get any bigger. Even when he does that human boulder jutsu." Kayko said, leaning back against part of the wall that was available to all of them.

Toshiko smirked. "Well...he's basically a planet."  
There was silence, but suddenly, all three of them burst into laughter.

"He probably has his own gravitational pull!" Ino suggested, then smirked as Kayko laughed along. Toshiko wiped a small tear of joy, then sighed and looked over to Kayko, who grinned. "I probably have to go, Ino...hey Toshiko, I'm going to visit my friend, Chimako. Wanna come with?"

"Sure!" Toshiko smiled, happy to make a new friend. She wandered over to Kayko's side, then looked over her shoulder and waved good bye to Ino.

As they began to walk, Toshiko found herself in a new place. She knew it was on the Konoha outskirts...but she hadn't exactly been there many times before. The brush of the trees and bushes told her she was now entering a thicker part of the forest, and the sounds of civilization fading away into the light confirmed her theory.

Both of the kunoichi looked around, but there was only silence. Toshiko was the first to speak.

"Where...is your friend?"  
"Chimako? She'll be here soon."  
"Chimako, huh? Interesting name."  
"I've known her since my early Academy days. We're our own two-man team."  
"No kidding?"

"Yup. We've always been the deadly duo."  
"You don't say."  
"It would have been nice having a third member, but we can handle ourselves. We don't need a third member."  
"I see."  
"You don't have a lot to say, huh?"  
"There's not much to."

More silence.

"There she is." Kayko finally spoke up and pointed towards a clearing. A purple-haired girl sat on a grassy hill, staring into the sky. She wore what seemed to be a blue/purple shawl, and her headband was around her neck, similar to Hinata's. Only her village was Mist. This made Toshiko think for a while, wondering how two girls from different villages could be in the same team.

The young girl was oblivious to the fact that now the two genin were running towards her at a fast pace. They stopped inches away from her, and Kayko was the first to speak. "Chimako-chan! What's up?" she grinned as she gave the young girl a hug and helped her up to her feet. Now Chimako was standing up and everything on her could be seen. The one thing that Toshiko noticed was a small marking on her neck, then her bright pink eyes which seemed to lack a pupil.

Toshiko then understood.

"I met this girl today- her name's Toshiko Hatake!" Kayko began, walking Chimako over to the waiting ninja. Chimako just blinked. "Hatake? Cousin of Kakashi...?"

"No, _sister_ of Kakashi."

"Well, go figure."

Chimako stopped not far from Toshiko, who was still examining this new girl. Chimako, eager to meet a new person, stretched out her hand. "I'm Chimako Tsuma! I was born in the village of the mist, that's why I have this headband. Oh, yeah, I'm also the one and only-"  
"Spirit girl." Toshiko finished her sentence and folded her arms, then gave a smart smirk, very similar to Sasuke's.

Kayko and Chimako blinked. "How didya know?"  
"The marking. Kakashi's told me the stories." the gray-haired girl pointed to Chimako's neck, then shook the extended hand. "And you've heard..I'm Toshiko Hatake. Sister of the legendary copy ninja." she waited for a reply, and when she saw Kayko's mouth open for a question, Toshiko quickly responded. "And yes, he has a sister. He just doesn't like to mention it in fear of my safety."  
Kayko's mouth shut silently. That was all she needed to know.

"Well..." Chimako paused, then shrugged. "What now?"

She only received two shrugs as a response.

"Um...we could just get to know each other a little better." Toshiko suggested, now standing with both of her arms crossed.

"Sure, why not." Kayko mumbled, knowing that this wasn't on her top list of things to do. But they were bored.

-------

"...and that's how I know Kabuto." Toshiko finished, not long after telling her story of her stay at Orochimaru base.

"Hah." Kayko stiffled a laugh. "That wimp. No wonder he couldn't hurt you. In fact, he just might have a soft side for-"  
"Where are you getting at?" Toshiko quickly snapped, looking towards Kayko. Chimako answered her question.  
"I think she wants to say that he likes ya, Toshiko." Chimako giggled, getting only a stare from Toshiko.

"Well..eh." Toshiko sighed and leaned back against the grass, now completely laying on her back. "Kabuto's cute and all...but Kiba interests me."  
"The Inuzuka?" Kayko wondered out loud, flopping over to her side to look at her new friends.

"Yeah." the Hatake girl smiled and sighed softly, then rested her cheek on the grass. "But oh well. I keep hearing that he likes Hinata, anyway."

Chimako and Kayko glanced at each other. They knew that wasn't true. Besides, Hinata liked Naruto. Kiba was an open field goal. Anyone could score.

There was a long silence after that.

"I should probably head home.." Toshiko mumbled, standing up. She brushed off her sides, then looked over to the other two. "Thanks guys...I needed to meet new people."  
"Heh, sure." Kayko shrugged, then waved her hand as she began to run down a trail that lead to Konoha. "I should go check up on the Akatsuki anyway. Later!"  
This left Chimako and Kayko.  
"Ah...I suppose I should go." Chimako looked over to Toshiko, who was now heading home. "See ya!"

Toshiko smiled as she disappeared in a puff of smoke. _"See ya."_

The girl reappeared in front of her house. Kakashi was just now appearing out of the home, getting ready to check the mail, when he spotted Toshiko. He blinked and walked over, completely ignoring the task he had just been about to do. "You're late. Asuma most probably dismissed you...what, about two hours ago? Heh. Even I don't arrive at my destinations that late." he looked down upon his younger sibling, who had a big smile on her face. "I made two new friends!"  
"Shikamaru and Ino?"  
"Well, then four."  
"Choji and Asuma."  
"Ok, ok, SIX."

Kakashi thought for a while, then shrugged. "I give up."  
"Their names are Kayko Tokiwa and Chimako Tsuma! Kakyo's from the sand and Chimako's from the mist!" Toshiko grinned happily, but Kakashi showed a frown that could not be seen due to his mask.

"Sand? I can deal with that. But mist? Toshiko- Haku and Zabuza were from the mist. Were. From. The mist. Not anymore." the sharingan-bearer looked down, remembering how he had killed Haku...and then Zabuza had suffered a similar deadly fate.

It was now Toshiko's turn to frown. "But they're really nice! And Chimako's the spirit girl! So she can-"  
"Oh boy, you finally met her." Kakashi showed a triumphant smirk, then ruffled his sister's hair. "Good. You have good allies. I'm proud. Now c'mon inside...I'm hungry." he smiled and wrapped his arm around her, then walked her inside the house.

When they walked inside, every single nin-dog that Kakashi and Toshiko owned came running towards them. They all ignored Kakashi and pounced upon an unsuspecting Toshiko, therefore knocking her down to the carpeted floor. "Guys! Guys, ok, ok! That's enough! Khaki, get off my eye. Pakkun, stop sniffing me. Guys!" she laughed as she received a shower of licks. Finally, they calmed down and jumped off. Toshiko laughed and stood upright, then got up with the help of her brother.

"Were ya training them?" she finally asked after she had settled into a large lounge chair. She pulled a lever that lifted a built-in footrest, then sighed and placed her feet on the resting spot. Kakashi walked over and placed his foot on that footrest, making it jump back into the chair again. Toshiko mumbled and used Kakashi's shoulders as a footrest of her own. He had to laugh. "I had to find a way to keep myself busy while you were over there socializing." he waved his hand swiftly as if to dismiss the thought away, then pulled down his mask and took a breath. "They need to stay in shape anyway. And get your feet off my shoulders."  
"No. Make me."  
"_Bad choice of words, Toshiko..."_ Kakashi slyly thought as he slipped off to the side, making Toshiko's feet fall to the floor with a bang. She flinched and quickly picked up her feet, resting her legs close to her chest as she sat on the lounge chair. "You...you sly little thing!" she snarled playfully and pounced on her brother. Kakashi, being quicker than usual, flipped around and grabbed the back of her head, then pinned her down to the ground. He held her right arm back behind her, also grabbing her other arm down with the same hand that pinned her head down.

"I made ya." he smirked, then slipped off and helped her up. He gave her a hug, then flipped over and put her on his back. The bad thing was that her feet were near his neck and her head was very close to touching his feet.

"Now c'mon...let's go to your room and read some of my scrolls."

Kakashi had to laugh as he heard his sister groan behind him, then he slowly walked into her room and closed the door behind him.


	10. Some Mission

The next day was just like any day, with the same schedule as always. Toshiko was loudly awoken by Kakashi's constant mischevious yells, followed by Khaki's annoying barks. Then, she lazily showered under the steaming, yet relaxing hot water. After her shower, she had to go back in her room to change. Once she was fully dressed and ready, she walked over and made breakfast for Kakashi, the dogs, and herself. When breakfast was made, the food was placed on the table and happily eaten by its hungry hosts. The table was soon cleared, and Toshiko had to clean the dishes. That was done rather quickly, so she had to go over and sit on the green couch, watching thirty minutes of boring television. Same old thirteen-year old routine, same old, same old.

"I'm off to see my team." Kakashi plainly spoke as he turned off the glowing tv box. "You go on and meet Asuma near the Ichiraku ramen bar. Just like yesterday. We talked earlier, and apparently you have a mission."  
"Really now?" Toshiko smirked and jumped up, watching as Khaki bounded over and jumped on her shoulder.

The jonin nodded and ruffled her hair. "See ya later." he grinned and waved a hand, then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Bye." Toshiko smiled and looked over to Khaki, who whined impatiently. "Ok, ok. Let's go see Asuma then." she chuckled and patted the dog's back, then walked out the door and slammed it shut behind her.

"Here we go..again."

Her steps were silent as exited her front yard and turned left. As she walked, she took the time to look around and enjoy the scenery. She never usually did that, but today was an exceptionally sunny day. Better to enjoy it now than never again. Enjoy the blooming flowers, the small bird that flew by, the leaves that rustled as the cool wind whistled by with a sharp shrill. Enjoy nature and everything around it. That's what she was doing.

Suddenly, her thoughts and observations were interrupted by a sudden close encounter. She stumbled back as she hit a random person out of nowhere.

"Oh, uh, sorry.." she muttered, then looked closely at the person. "Kiba?"

"Toshiko?" the Inuzuka blinked and folded his arms. "Wha- why are you here? And weren't you supposed to be with my team yesterday?"

The girl smiled and gave Kiba a hug before saying hi to the cream-colored pup on his head. "Sorry Kiba-kun. I got stuck with Team 10. You know, Asuma's team."

"Yes, I know."

"They're actually pretty nice!"

"Whatever."

Toshiko tilted her head and looked up at Kiba. He was usually very loud and talkative. Why wasn't he like that today?  
"Kiba? You're not talking much today. What's the matter?"  
"Everything."  
This gave the girl a confused look.

"Everything's the matter." he folded his arms and waved his hand around. "Everything in this universe is made of matter! The stuff that makes up atoms! Everything's the matter!!"

It Toshiko a while to get it, but in a bit, she started laughing.

"Kiba, you science dork." she laughed and hugged her friend around his waist. "No seriously, what's wrong?"  
The Inuzuka's face turned a slight shade of red as he looked down. "Uh, nothing, nothing. I was just wondering why you weren't assigned to my team."  
"I told you, Kiba, Kakashi got me into Asuma's team. I'll be with them for a few days. But now I have to hurry. I have a mission or something." she let go and looked at her friend. "See ya around, okay?"

A smile penetrated his lips. "Okay. See ya around." he waved as he watched the girl disappear into the horizon. He stood still for a while, staring at the empty road before him. Akamaru's growling brought him back to Konoha.

"What are you talking about, Akamaru? I am _NOT_ blushing! Yes, I know, I know. But besides, from what I've been told, they say she likes..." Kiba made his hand into a fist, then continued on his way. His canine companion tilted his head, eager for Kiba to finish his sentence. He didn't, though, but all he said was, "Why does every girl have to like _him_?"

---------

"I'm here!" Toshiko panted, running towards the ramen bar. She sighed as she reached the four shinobi, who were on the verge of dying from waiting. "I'm here! I made it! No worries!"  
"No worries?!" Ino scoffed, "You've been keeping us waiting for at least an hour and a half!"

"You're exactly like your brother." mumbled Shikamaru, lifting an eyebrow as he looked towards Toshiko. "How shameful."

"Nom nom nom." Choji said nothing as he scarfed down his lunch for the seventh time that hour.

"Well, at least you're here." Asuma twirled his cigarette with his tongue, then looked over at his new 'student'. "Now listen, the Hokage gave us a mission. We're going to Tea Country. Apparently, they have some goods that we need to transport from there to here. This mission isn't dangerous at all- it's only D Rank. But we should go on and get going." he looked over to the Shika-Ino-Cho group who nodded simply at him. Then his eyes flickered over to Toshiko, who just smiled.

"Ok then. We're off."

---

It took a while, but the newly four-man made team made it to Tea Country. They talked with a local who gave them directions to the warehouse where the goods were stored. The five shinobi walked over to the warehouse, only to discover that the owner wasn't home. So they waited for about thirty minutes, and finally the man showed up. He had a worried look on his face. Team 10 shot awkward glances at each other.

"What seems to be the matter?" Shikamaru finally spoke up. He rubbed the back of his head as the man began to stutter.

"P-please, don't be angry w-with me. B-but the goods, t-they're gone!" 

"Gone?" Choji finally said after endlessly eating his bag of chips.

"Gone! T-they were stolen! B-by a pack of ninja!"

"What did the ninja look like?" Ino asked, eager to hear exciting news. This mission might not be so boring after all.

"T-they all wore brown. They had face masks, only you could s-see their eyes. T-they headed towards Konohagakure."

Team 10 looked at each other again, and Asuma spoke up. "We'll see if we can find the goods. If we succesfully retrieve them, we'll take them to their destination and inform you of their arrival." he coughed slightly, then fit his hands in his pockets. "Let's go, team." and all five of them disappeared in a flash.

"Thank you!" the man waved. "T-thanks..." he said with an eager smile. This smile turned evil as he spotted that the ninja were gone. He rubbed his hands together, then transformed into a scowling Kabuto. "Thanks greatly. Master Orochimaru will be pleased with your deaths. That'll be five less ninja we'll have to deal with." then with a laugh, he disappeared underground.


	11. Let's Meet

It had been thirty minutes since the meet up with the "trader" in Tea Country. Team 10 and it's new student had been dashing among the high canopy of the trees, looking down every few minutes just to see if they could find any trace of a pack of travelers or thieves. Once, Choji had found a bag of potato chips nearby, but Shikamaru had pointed out that it was probably his own and he could have dropped it earlier. Choji had seemed happy enough, and now as they moved along, he happily munched on his free bag of chips.

"This seems rather odd..." Toshiko said after a while. Her eyes were focused greatly on the distance in front of her as they leaped high above the green-shaded trees. Every once in a while, her eyes would flicker over to observeher teammates, just to see if they were actually listening to her. Much to her surprise, the trio was listening most of the time.

"To think that the pack of goods would get stolen the second we got there...they would have informed us about that while we were walking there, wouldn't they? I mean, those treats are not going to get stolen that fast."

"Who is 'they'?" Shikamaru plainly asked. Before he could get an answer, he continued. "No one's going to communicate that fast. There is no 'they'. There was only a 'him' and an 'us'. Now there is a 'they', but this 'they' are the pack of ninjas that we're trying to find. Not our communication tower." his eyes closed slightly, as if to let his speech slowly sink into the other's minds. Then, he opened his eyes, only to find that the group wasn't there. Shikamaru's eyes jabbed open in shock. Had his team completely ignored their leader and gone off without him? As his thoughts began to sink into himself, he noticed that the others had gone the other way and were still listening to him, contrary to his earlier belief. There was a bit of embarrasment in him, but nevertheless, he sighed and dashed to the right, quickly catching up with his team.

Toshiko was still deep in thought as Shikamaru caught up, but there wasn't a lot to think about this time. Shikamaru hadn't made things clearer, but he had given her less to think about. She was just getting to dig deeper into her mind when her thoughts were interrupted as Ino pointed something out far below them.

"Ninja!" she yelled. "And they're headed east!"

Then the five shinobi quickly dashed to the direction of the so-called pack of ninja.

"Aha." Shikamaru smirked as they appeared in front of a large group of travelers. He rubbed the back of his neck sourly, then folded his arms across his chest disapprovingly. He saw that the ninja weren't carrying any sort of wagon or anything. For a minute there, he thought he might have the wrong group. But as he remembered the man's description, Shikamaru was certain that these were the ninja they were supposed to catch.

"Ok, give it up. Where's the goods?" as he craned his neck slowly, he looked at the group before him. As he admired them some more, he focused on their headbands. Those weren't Leaf Village headbands...that wasn't the Leaf symbol. This symbol was a simple eighth-note. It was Otogakure. These were from the Sound village!

One of the masked men just laughed as he pulled out a kunai. "No need. We've already found the goods _we_ were looking for."

Choji raised an eyebrow. He dug his hand into his bag of chips and munched on it as he began to think on what the man had just said. "_What are they talking about? They were the ones that stole those treats in the first place! Oh, I'll show them what happens when they mess with food."_

Without warning, the ninja leaped out into an ambush. They headed for the team, kunais drawn and ready. You could tell that these guys were hiding more than just 'stolen goods'.

Asuma stretched out his arms and got in a fighting stance. "Attack when ready!" he yelled as he reached in his little pack and got out his own weapons. He lunged forward and managed to make many of them stumble, but there were still a lot left to fight. Asuma easily fought them off, but they kept coming back from every direction possible.

"Right! Ino, Choji, go that way." Shikamaru flicked his head, motioning to his original teammates in which direction to go. Ino and Choji nodded and headed the way indicated to fight the oncoming pack. While they were busy, Shikamaru looked towards Toshiko. "You! Get help! These aren't your average ninja. We're going to need more than just us."

Toshiko simply nodded, then ducked as one of the brown-suited ninja came her way. She snarled and kicked the man in the back of the neck. She knew everyone had a pressure point just back there.

Knock out.

Then, quickly, she performed a swift seal. In effect of the seal performed, she disappeared in a puff of gray smoke.

----

"Hey Kakashi sensei!" Naruto piped up happily as he began to, once again, bother his sensei about something randomly stupid. His yellow hair whisked to the right as he plopped down near his mentor.

"What?" Kakashi asked, not seeming to care at the moment. He'd rather read his favorite book than listen to Uzumaki's rantings.

"I say we go do a mission! Whaddya say, huh? Huh? Huuuuhh?"

"No. You need to train today."

"But everyone else is doing missions and I'm stuck here _training!?!_"

"Practice will get you ready. Now go."

Naruto moaned silently and cursed to himself as he walked back to the training spot where he had been seconds before. The young boy jumped back and spun around, throwing shurikens at his target -a well rounded log- as he spun. Most of the weapons thrown hit their mark. The other four that missed zoomed by their target. One of them even slashed Sasuke's shorts.

"Naruto, you idiot!" he yelled, resisting the urge to throw something heavier back at him. He was thiking among the lines of a kunai..or a biggen shuriken...or maybe even a nice fist.

"Focus!" Sasuke snarled, then continued on his own target. It was just another log, not very different from the one that Sakura or Naruto had to train with.  
He groaned and whipped out three kunai, then lunged them at his target. He hit the mark with two kunais, and the other seemed to disappear into space. After a while, there was the sound of a sharp, metallic cling. The sudden sound was far away, but it was still clearly able to be heard. Sakura quickly covered her right ear as the sound vibrated through the field.

"You're lucky that didn't hit me." Toshiko snarled, holding up her left gloved hand. The metal plate on the glove had clashed with the kunai, making it stop short and emit that sharp sound they had recently heard.

She bent over and grabbed the weapon, then lazily twirled it in her index finger as she neared the group.

"Toshiko?" Sakura asked, clearly surprised to see the gray-haired girl again. Just when she had thought that she was forever free of the girl, she showed up. Was she everywhere?

"Toshiko?" Kakashi piped up, actually looking up from his book. He blinked his solitary eye and rose to his feet. "Why are you here? I thought you had to go with Asuma today. No, scratch that- you DID have to go with Asuma today. I thought we made it clear."

"Well, Team 10 needs your help. It started with a normal D Rank mission, you see. We had to bring some goods from another place over to here. But then we found out that the goods had been stolen. The goods that we needed to retrieve."

She spoke fast but blunt, so her words were easy to make out and understand.

"We found the thieves, but according to Shikamaru, we're going to need more than just five shinobi. He said we're not fighting normal ninjas. Which is really odd, but..." her voice trailed off as Naruto jumped up, happy to hear some exciting news.

"YEAH! A mission! How great is that, Kakashi sensei?!" he laughed as he fixed his headband, then stuck out his hand in a thumbs-up. "This is going to be SO AWESOME!"

"Pssh." Sasuke rolled his eyes and shook his head slowly, then looked over to Kakashi, waiting for further instruction. It was like he hoped that his elite sensei knew the answer to everything that had just occurred in front of his very eyes.

"Ok then..." Kakashi mumbled, waving his gloved hand friskily. He stuck his book inside his vest pocket, then walked over to Toshiko and placed his hand on her bare shoulder. "We'll follow you, then."

"It'll take a while..." Toshiko said as she began to run south, Team 7 following behind. "It's in Tea Country."

"Oh joy." Sakura said sarcastically, receiving a glare from Sasuke.

"Do you want to go or not?"

This took Sakura off guard, but she nodded meekly, afraid to say anything bad to Sasuke. Then, she silently followed the rest of the way.

----

"There's too many of them!" Ino growled as she fought off two more of the sound nin. She flicker her yellow ponytail back as she stood her guard against another man. "They just keep on coming!"

"Yeah! And my human boulder isn't stopping them!" Choji panted, moments after he had attempted the jutsu which bloated him and made him into a giant balloon, basically. He had rolled over about five of them, and yet, they still came.

Shikamaru groaned as he strove to keep up with the three ninja he had captured. With his Shadow Posession Jutsu, he was now messing with three ninja at a time, making their hands silently move above their heads. The Sound Nin clearly seemed confused, but with Shikamaru in control, there was little they could do. It would have been so hilarious had it not been such a tense time.

"Just hold them back until the Hatake returns!" Asuma growled as he took out his trench knives. He slashed through two of the ninja in front of him and allowed one of the blades to stretch farther than usual, killing another one far beyond his reach. Oh, how he loved his trench knives.

Then the cloud of smoke appeared.

"The Hatake has returned." Kakashi cooly said before punching an oncoming sound nin out of his way. When the man came back, he ducked and kicked him upwards, knocking him out while he was still in the air.

"This is it?" Sasuke scoffed as he dodged a few of the sound ninja. Many of them seemed to be coming towards him now. The minute he had appeared, he had been like a magnet for them. "This is why you called us? This is too easy."

"You said it!" Naruto grinned, cloning himself dramatically and focusing on one on the men.

"Ino!" Sakura suddenly snarled, finding her former best friend.

"Sakura!" Ino snarled back as their eyes met with deep hatred. They both looked over to Sasuke, then quickly dashed towards him and stood in front, almost like body guards.

"I'll defend you, Sasuke-kun!"

"No, I will! You can count on me, Sasuke!"

"Feh." Sasuke sighed and pushed them out of his way, then continued to beat some of the others.

"This does seem a bit easy, Toshiko." Kakashi agreed as he repeatedly kicked three ninjas out of the way at the same time. He looked over to his sister and frowned. "I thought the case would be much more dramatic than this."

"Well..." Toshiko mumbled as she fought off one of the many that surrounded them. Then, she heard a bang. She looked around and saw a bit of smoke come from the trees. Two shadows were standing there- one noticibly taller than the other.

Her sky blue eyes squinted as she tried to make out who was standing there in those trees. Finally, the smoke cleared, and she saw who it was.

"Kabuto? Orochimaru?!"

-------------

_Short chapter, me no likey x-x shot._

_Anyway...reviews? x3 Lol._


	12. What A Meeting

"Kabuto? Orochimaru?!"

Toshiko's jaw dropped as she stared at the two clearing shadows before her. They stepped forward at a slow rhythm, then stopped and glared at the leaf shinobi before them. Nobody dared to move after that- not even breathe, in fact. None of the Konoha ninja understood what was going on. The jonin were clueless, Team 10 was shocked about the twist embedded into their mission, Sakura froze, Sasuke stared, and even Naruto couldn't believe it.

It was Orochimaru's jaw that first a cold, hard laugh to escape its borders. The gray-haired Kabuto's smooth voice soon followed in laughter afterward.

"Well well. It seems that there's more than we bargained for, Kabuto." Orochimaru's cold voice ran throughout the plains as he began to speak. "Look. Nine awaiting Leaf Ninja, ready to finish killing the group of 'thieves' that we sent."

"Thieves. Hah. It lightens my heart to see someone fall for such a dumb trick like that." Kabuto sneered as he tilted his head forward, then pushed his glasses higher up his nose bridge with his index finger. A chuckle followed.

"What do you want?" Kakashi exclaimed, twirling a firm kunai in his hand. He snarled as he only received a laugh for an answer. "Are you just going to stand there and laugh or tell me what you want?!" he now held the kunai so hard, you'd think that it would snap under the pressure.

Orochimaru simply folded his arms as he looked over to the silver-haired jonin. His golden amber eyes stared hard, as if to mentally hit his targets in front of them in hopes of wiping them out of his way. "I'm here for my current goal- retrieving Sasuke."

Ino and Sakura instinctively gasped. Sasuke just smirked as he looked to the sannin. "As if." 

Toshiko looked over to Kakashi with a concerned look. He stared back, but his look was far from concerned. It was serious and focused.

"You're not going to achieve your goal." Asuma snarled, getting his trench knives ready. "Never."  
His team nodded eagerly as to back him up. Orochimaru only laughed harder at this.

"Please. Do you really think you can beat me?" Orochimaru lifted his hands, sending almost like an energy force heading towards them. All nine of the shinobi stumbled back at least two feet.

It was Kabuto's turn to laugh. "I don't think anything can beat you, Lord Orochimaru."

"Well you're wrong!" Naruto snarled as he jumped up and threatingly pointed at the two Otogakure dwellers. "We can take you two down easily, no problem! You think you're so tough, but we'll prove that wrong! Believe it!" 

Everybody's self-esteem had been slowly rising deep within themselves as Naruto began to speak. But after his annoying catchphrase, everyone had just rolled their eyes sympathetically. Toshiko was the first to speak after that.  
"If you think you're getting Sasuke or anyone else here, then you ARE wrong! Because we're not going to let that happen!"

"Yeah! You can't take Sasuke-kun! Never!" Sakura piped up before Ino had the chance to. After her remark, she received a cold and warning glare from the blonde. But Sakura just stared at Kabuto and Orochimaru as they spoke.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. He knew that they couldn't get him. In his mind, nothing could get him.

Before anyone else could speak, Kabuto zoomed out. He dashed through everyone, extending his hand along the way. Therefore, he hit every single shinobi- even Asuma and Kakashi took a blow to their well-protected stomachs. Everyone cringed and doubled over just a bit. Sasuke tried his best to not look like he was hurt, but he fell to his knees anyway. This sudden movement made Ino and Sakura scream "Sasuke-kun!"

Orochimaru only laughed as Kabuto jumped back next to his master. A nod from the sannin told Kabuto that he should go back and repeat his doings. And that was exactly what he did. The second time he went around, he knocked everyone except Asuma, Kakashi, and Shikamaru to their feet. Sasuke was now blown back and slammed into a nearby tree.

Well, now Sasuke was actually having second thoughts about his earlier opinions. It seemed a bit too late to reconsider, though. However, was it really? 

Quickly acting, Shikamaru seized the chance to attack Kabuto. Since he was calmly walking back to Orochimaru, Shikamaru made a few seals and muttered a few words, then watched as a shadow shot out from his feet and grabbed Kabuto's. The Sound Nin froze as he realized that he could no longer walk on his own free will. This wasn't good for the Otogakure ninja, but it was great for Konohagakure shinobi.

Smirking, Shikamaru lifted his right arm. Kabuto's own right arm relunctantly lifted, being a mirror image to the Nara's movements. Shikamaru's left arm lifted, and so did his victim's. He began to flick his wrists in several directions, making hilarious movements come from the trapped Kabuto. Once, he had thought that the leaf ninja were prey, and that they were the predators. They feasted off of them. But today, the tables had turned. Shikamaru was the predator and Kabuto was the cornered prey.

"Go!" Naruto suddenly yelled. A pair of identical clones shot out from him and rushed towards Kabuto. They severely punched him, happy to acknowledge the fact that there was nothing he could do but stand there like an idiot as Shikamaru controlled his actions.

Now the real Naruto came over and began to beat Kabuto as well. Ino happily joined the fight.

Orochimaru was now mad. Not just mad- VERY mad. So mad, he stretched out his arms and watched as seven tornado-like whirlwinds came shooting out from beside him. The tornados picked up just about everyone except for the jonin, who jumped out of the way and began to try and attack Orochimaru with no avail.

"You're not getting Sasuke-kun!" Ino yelled as one of the tornados slashed through her and sent her flying back. She quickly jumped up, though, and continued to try and get Kabuto out of the way. Naruto, meanwhile, had really been caught in the whirlwind, and he spun full cycles before slamming into Shikamaru. This broke his concentration and also broke the connection he had made with Kabuto's shadow. Kabuto took this chance to jump up and take out a few kunais, then launch them towards the attackers. One of these sliced through Toshiko's scar- the one that Sakura had given her long before when they had sparred exactly a week ago. The scar was opened and there was blood.

Toshiko snarled as she jumped up and took out her own kunai, then clashed it with the one Kabuto had shielded in front of him. They stared each other for a while, then finally, Kabuto spoke.

"Leave, Toshiko. This has nothing to do with you."

"Really? Well, it does now."

"Get out of our way."

"No."

"Get out!"

"I said NO!"

"You're going to get killed and that's the last thing I want to do!"

At this, Toshiko drew back a little. Kabuto took this chance to duck down and swing his leg, making her fall back. The minute she hit the ground, though, she pushed herself back and flipped backwards onto her feet. She growled and drew the kunai close to her face, then launched it forward. Kabuto, of course, made it clash with his kunai, then stopped and began to pant. The earlier hits he had taken were now coming to haunt him. His energy was coming down more and more. The teams had kept him busy. Even the unlikely Choji had hit him before, delivering a hard blow towards his stomach. Toshiko stared at him for a while, then crouched down and looked at his face.

"Where's the fun Kabuto I used to know?"

Asuma and Kakashi had kept Orochimaru busy as well. They hadn't delivered many punches or kicks, but they had confused him many times as he had tried to attack them. The jonin had dashed in and out, left to right, sideways and diagonally. Orochimaru wasn't tired, but he certainly was dazzled. How they kept up with their lively dashes and still managed to not get tired didn't amaze him much. What he wondered is why they hadn't hit him yet.

"You're just too much." he sarcastically said, laughing as Kakashi finally came in for a counter attack. Orochimaru dodged it, then stuck out his arm and watched as Kakashi ran straight into it. The masked man froze, then stumbled back a bit and put his hand to his chest, clutching it tightly. He had been hit, and it had hurt.

"I wonder how I can EVER beat you." Orochimaru laughed as Asuma dashed towards him, trench knives in hand. He managed to slash through the man's clothes, but only ended up getting smacked in the back of the head as a thank-you gift. This sudden blow made him fall forward and almost land on his knees, had he not spun around quickly and dashed upright.

"You know what? You all look SO tired." Orochimaru cackled as he beckoned Kabuto over to his side. He had been about to answer Toshiko's question with a snappy comeback line of _'There was never a fun Kabuto' _, but he never got to and walked over to Orochimaru instead. "We'll just let you rest, now won't we? Maybe when I come back and see you all again, you'll actually make me tired." he laughed as he and Kabuto disappeared in a flash.

"Ghrr." Sasuke snarled as he watched the fading figures. His cold, black eyes only stared at the empty space where they had been as Sakura slowly walked over to him. "Sasuke-kun? You ok?" her voice was concerned as always. She put a hand on his shoulder, only to have it swiped away when he moved his shoulder back. The Uchiha stood up, glared at the field before him, then looked over to Kakashi. The jonin was no longer clutching his heart in pain. Instead, he had taken off one of the bandages around his right knee and he was now wrapping it around Toshiko's bleeding arm.

"We're going back." Kakashi said as he tied the blood-soaked bandage in place. He patted Toshiko's hair softly as he stood up and walked over to his team. "Let's go." with that, he disappeared.

"Hey! What gives?! We were just getting started!" Naruto protested as Kakashi seemed to disintegrate into thin air. He snarled as Sasuke punched him. "Let it go, Naruto. C'mon." he placed a hand on his comrade's shoulder as they both disappeared. Sakura relunctantly followed.

"Well.." Asuma walked over to Team 10 who stared at him with a confused expression. "This was...some mission. I'll have to write a long report on this one. Let's go, then."

"But, what about the food?" Choji asked, looking up at his sensei. He received a cold glare from Ino, as well as a slap. "THERE WAS NO FOOD! IT WAS A TRICK!"  
"Ah, Choji, the things you don't understand." Shikamaru chuckled and patted his friend. "C'mon, team. Let's go." he grinned as he disappeared, followed by Ino and Choji.   
Asuma waited for Toshiko to appear next to him. Then, he put a hand on her shoulder and they both disappeared in a puff of smoke.

-----

"That was...intense." Toshiko commented as she sat in the living room, her head nestled onto that black pillow with red stripes which she so dearly loved. The pillow had been on the street once upon a time, and a young Toshiko had immediately taken it in. It reminded her of Kiba, for some odd reason...

"Psh, no." Kakashi sarcastically said as he scribbled some notes on a piece of paper. Oh how he hated writing reports.

There was silence. Toshiko squirmed uncomfortably and squish-hugged her pillow.

"Kashi?"

"..."

"Kashi-niichan?"

"What?" 

"Why...why does Orochimaru want to take Sasuke's body?"

Kakashi's pencil froze as he was finishing up the word _new_. He blinked and looked over to his patient sister, who awaited an answer, obviously. "Well...see, every once in a while, Orochimaru needs a new body..."

"What for?" Toshiko was now sitting up, but she still clung to her pillow.

"So he can live longer. You know his life's mission is to take over the villages."

"But why does he need Sasuke?"

"..."

"Kashi-niichan?"

"BECAUSE SASUKE'S THE BODY HE WANTS TO TAKE!!!" Kakashi slammed his palms onto the table and looked over to Toshiko, a snarl forming in his visible mouth. As usual, he did not have his mask on inside his house. The clenching of his teeth was visible. "DON'T YOU GET IT?!"

"I- I do now..." Toshiko blinked, then stood up and slowly walked over to her room. "Geez, Kashi. Don't need to be so loud. Good night." with that, she slammed her door shut.

Kakashi blinked, then groaned and slumped back down into his chair.

"Good night..."


	13. Visit From A Friend

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

**BEEP.**

"GARRH!" Toshiko shot up in bed, her eyes red with lack of sleep and anger. She looked over to her left side, spotting the dreaded alarm clock and all of its evilness. She thought quickly and yanked the alarm clock out of its socket, then threw it across the room. The minute the device slammed on the wall and crushed to bits, Khaki jumped up and quickly hid in Toshiko's bed.

"Awr?" the young dog looked up at her master, who literally had fumes coming out of her ears. "Toshi?" Khaki whined softly as she nosed the young haired girl.

"It's...FOUR...in...the...MORNING." Toshiko's right eye twitched, although it was hidden by the three locks of hair that always acted like a a group of bangs covering the right side of her face.

"And...I wanted...to..SLEEP." she roared and threw her covers back. Toshiko then looked over to her dog, who was shaking and whimpering by her side. After that sight, she calmed down a bit. "Heeey." a laugh came from her mouth as she patted the small dog. "Let's go back to sleep, eh?"

"No...don't go to sleep."

Toshiko jerked upright in her bed and looked around. All she saw was her television, her dresser, the tossed sheets, a mirror, some other books and scrolls...and finally, what was left of the alarm clock. "Who said that?"

"Kiba did." the Inuzuka boy tapped her window, a small smile on his face. Akamaru was nestled in his jacket, fast asleep.

The young girl's eyes shrank a little as she spotted the boy in her window. She looked down at herself, then smiled with relief. Good. She was fully dressed in good, covering nightclothes.

"Why are you here?" she slipped out of her bed, then opened the window. Kiba snuck in silently, making sure not to step on anything that might make a noise.

"I wanted to see you."

"At four in the morning?"

"Yeess."

Toshiko's eager face turned a bit shocked, then serious, but then joking. "Kiba, you're a lonely man."

Kiba had to laugh. "I know." he smiled and wandered over to Toshiko's bed, then sat down. He smiled as he felt the cold covers relax against his warm skin. Swiftly, he leaned back and turned over, now laying completely on the bed. He smiled and twisted and turned for a while, then pulled up the covers of the bed and shrouded himself deep within them. Needless to say, he was enjoying himself. And Akamaru, who had been woken by the sudden movements, began to snarl. The dog was not enjoying himself.

"Kiba...Akamaru...get out of my bed." Toshiko laughed and sat on the rim of her own bed. Then, she pulled up her legs and clutched them close to her chest. Her head rested on her knees as she looked over at Kiba. "Or at least out of it. Please?"

"Why aren't you in my team?" Kiba mumbled under his breath, randomly changing the subject. "Why did you have to go with Team 7? Then why'd you have to get Team 10? Why not my team!?" he made a fake pout with his lower lip, then watched as Akamaru did the same. 

Toshiko rolled her eyes as she stretched out her legs and sat next to him. "I told you before- I don't choose the teams. Neither does Kakashi or Asuma. The Hokage chooses in which team I get to on. Speaking of that, get out of my bed. Kakashi will kill us both if he finds you here with me. It's four in the morning! And I have to sleep, for tomorrow I go train with Asuma sensei again." 

"No you don't."

"Pardon?"

Kiba grinned as he turned around to face the young Hatake. "Tomorrow's Saturday, dummy. You don't train." he shifted uneasily for a little while, then propped himself up onto his right elbow and smiled softly. His dark triangular eyes shone brightly in the small amount of moonlight that entered through the cracks of the window beside them. There was a long silence.

Then there was a cough.

A sudden bark.

More silence.

"Hey Toshiko."

"Yeah?"

"Do you like Sasuke?"

This sudden question took the girl by surprise. She didn't jump or anything, but her eyes clearly grew wide. That was something she hadn't thought of. She didn't necessarily like the Uchiha, but she didn't hate him either.

"Toshiko?"

"He's alright, I guess."

"You guess?"

Toshiko shifted uneasily, then rested her head on his shoulder. Kiba shuddered nervously, but she continued anyway. "Well, he's had a rough life and stuff...and he's the top ninja in the academy. He's not that great, though. Too sentimental for my tastes. Besides...Ino and Sakura are already obsessed with him enough. He doesn't need another fangirl."

"Well that's not true. He has millions of fangirls."

"Exactly. He doesn't need any more."

"So..you _don't_ like him?"

"No."

Silence.

"Well..." Toshiko yawned and slipped inside the covers, then chuckled as Khaki decided to join her. The small dog nestled herself by the pillow, then managed to cover herself up with the sheets by tugging them up with her strong jaws. She whined happily, then barked a simple 'good night' to her fellow comrades. Khaki happily received a 'good night' lick from Akamaru.  
"I should sleep now." the young girl mumbled as she rested her head on the white pillow before her. Another yawn escaped her mouth, making Kiba chuckle.

A hand reached over in the darkness. It softly began to smooth Toshiko's hair down flatly against her head, then twirl them a bit and put them back down. The young Inuzuka smiled and chuckled slightly as Akamaru began to acknowledge his actions.

"Naw...c'mon Toshiko. Let's go out."

Toshiko's eyes shot open as she looked over to her best friend. "What'd ya say?"

Kiba began to sweat slightly as he jumped back. "You know, I mean, go outside! Enjoy the night life. Just..walk around?"

A laugh escaped Toshiko as she turned over and looked at Kiba. "You want me to sneak out? Do you have any idea how hard Kakashi would pound me if I did that?"

A few minutes passed, then Kiba meekly nodded. Toshiko had to laugh. "Let's go, then."

-------------

"Ha, this is great!" Toshiko grinned as she and Kiba walked down the streets of Konoha. The streets were beautifully lit, with oil lamps hanging from every other door. Most of them had a red covering around the lamps, giving off a glowing red that made the night seem mysterious, yet oh so wonderful. Stray dogs ran awry, sometimes making the lamps dangle as the air behind them shot by. One lamp managed to fall near a curious Akamaru, who immediately jumped back and ran into his owner's fur-lined hoodie. They had a good laugh after that.

"It's so beautiful at night! I never knew how Konoha looked at night." sky blue eyes flickered about, absorbing everything that the night city had to offer. Kiba chuckled and put an arm playfully around his friend's arm. "You've never been outside at night?"  
"Nu-uh. Kakashi always keeps me in." Toshiko looked around before jokingly grasping Kiba's hand, then swinging his arm along with hers. She smiled happily and shut her eyes with glee as their hands clasped together and began to swing. Kiba tried hard not to blush, but it was impossible to stop the redness from covering his cheeks even more. He coughed uneasily, but he did not remove his hand from Toshiko's grip. He wasn't about to. Akamaru just snickered as he rested upon his owner's head. Kiba glared up at him angrily, only to receive yet another evil snicker from the pup.

"Do you always go out at night, Kiba?" Toshiko curiously looked over at Kiba, who was blushing like mad. He shook his head and tilted it forward, letting his hoodie fall over his head and cover it. "No, not always."  
"Oh." there was a moment of silence, then her arm stopped swinging as they reached what seemed to be a cliff. Their hands stayed together as they neared the cliff, then stopped and looked over the edge. It wasn't a big drop- it was more like a hill. You could easily roll down the grassy side and you'd have a blast doing it.

The duo admired the hill for a moment, then sat down. Toshiko relunctantly let go of Kiba's hand as she positioned herself when she sat down on the edge.

They looked at the moon.

"Look Kiba, the moon!"

"I see."

"It's pretty, isn't it?"  
"Not as a pretty as you."

Toshiko blinked in confusion and looked over to Kiba, who shed a bead of sweat and began to laugh nervously.

"I mean, as your...hair. Yeah, your hair. And your eyes." Kiba laughed, but his laugh wasn't steady. Slowly, his nervous laugh faded and he looked away. Much to his own surprise, he eventually looked back. He found himself face to face with sparkling azure eyes that questioned him so.

Once again, he laughed nervously. However, he stopped when he found Toshiko leaning against his shoulder.

"Kiba...you're the best friend anyone could ever have. Seriously. I can't think of any other friend I'd rather be with right now!" she smiled and looked up at him. She hoped that he understood that Toshiko was speaking in a friendly manner. She seemed like if she just wanted to be friends, but inside, she knew that 'just friends' wasn't enough.

After a long silence, Kiba wrapped his arm around her. "Me too..." he laughed and gave her a playful hug, then looked up at the moon. He just hoped and prayed that Kakashi wouldn't kill any of them...

-------------

"TOSHIKO!!!!!"

_"That doesn't sound too good."_

**"WAKE UP!!!"**

"Ok, ok!" Toshiko waved her arms wildly and shot up onto an upright position. Her eyes scanned her surroundings and she found herself in her own bed again.

_Had that all been a dream?_

She then looked up only to find a very angry Kakashi staring down at her. It wasn't very good when Kakashi's eyes went completely white and started glowing.

"Yeesss?"

"Finally! What were you up to last night?!"

Toshiko rubbed her eyes sleepily and blinked, then looked up. "What are you talking about?"

Kakashi glared and folded his arms. "You came home at six o'clock. Kiba carried you into your room. He thought I was asleep, but as you can tell, I _wasn't_!"

_"Smooth, Kiba. Smooooth. Now we're both going to get killed."_

"Kashi! I didn't do anything! We only went for a walk!" Toshiko cringed as Kakashi sat next to her, then began to ruffle her hair. That was when she opened her eyes. She wasn't dead yet?  
"I just don't want you hurt." Kakashi mumbled as he hugged the young girl. Inside, he was really trying not to explode with rage. "Kiba's nice and all but...you're thirteen. Gotta be careful."  
"What did you think we did?" the almighty question suddenly bursted out of Toshiko's mouth as she placed her hair back where it should be.

"Just..." Kakashi sighed and smirked, showing his sparkling-white teeth. "Just tell me if you're ever going to go out like that again, ok? I'm your brother- I need to know where you are. Last time I didn't take care of someone like that..." he paused, having serious flashbacks of his childhood. His father... Obito...Rin...

After a while, he coughed and held Toshiko close. "You know what I'm saying."

"So...what do I do now?" Toshiko looked up with a questioning look. Kakashi smiled and nudged her playfully with his nose. "Go on, enjoy your day. It's Saturday, for pete's sake. Go...visit...your new friends or something."

"Oh yeah! Kayko and Chimako. I haven't seen them in a while." she beamed happily and looked at Kakashi, who nodded. "They are quite a pair..." he commented, "From all the training we've done..."  
"Oi, oi, Kakashi-niichan, you train them?!"

"Team 15."  
"I could join that team!"

Kakashi blinked, then began to laugh as he ruffled the young girl's silvery gray hair. It made him smile at how alike they were, yet how completely different they acted. "You're cute, you know that? Anyway, go on, meet up with them or something. I dunno."

"Alright!" Toshiko laughed and ran for the door. Kakashi held her back as he grasped her shoulder.

"Woah there, Toshi! At least change out of those clothes. You look like you just got swallowed up by Jiraya's toad.."

--

_GAH. I haven't written in so long DX Forgive me, lol. Computer's been busted.._

_Gah, this chapter's kinda short. But I'm still writing! D_


	14. Likely Punishment

"Alright, Khak. So you go and tell them I'll be at East Park in..." Toshiko stopped and pondered for a minute. When exactly would she and her new friends meet? It took her a while, but she finally thought of an ideal time to meet at the chosen place. "...about an hour. Got it?"

The young dog wagged her tail in a joyful manner and barked, then proceeded to run around in a full circle before sitting down. This made her master laugh and pat her on the head. Khaki was pleased at the sudden sign of affection.

"Good. Now go." Toshiko flicked her wrist and pointed to the solid wooden door that was the exit to her room. She smiled as she watched her small dog run off through the opening, then zoom down the hall. After she was sure that the dog had left, she jumped over onto her bed and laid down. A sneaky and blissful smile appeared on her face as she rolled over and hugged her pillow tight. Her mind was full of memories from the night before, when she had had the chance to spend a night alone with Kiba.

Khaki dashed through the hall, then smiled as she saw the doggie door before her. All she had to do was go through that small opening, and she was out of the house. Then she'd have to run around and find Toshiko's friends...but that couldn't be too hard, right?

There was a grin on the dog's face as she launched towards the narrow slot. She was going to make it clean through, just like she always did. She was just going to breeze through that door.

Wrong.

The dog soon realized that her paws weren't touching the soft outside ground. There was no cool grass or dirt under her paws. There wasn't even any ground at all! Just air.

Khaki began to struggle as she tried to find out what was going on. She was soon lifted up higher than she already was.

"Calm down, doggy." Kakashi smirked as he petted the squirming pup with his free hand. He placed the dog in his arms and cradled her softly while scratching behind her ear. This calmed Khaki down, and soon enough, she was on the verge of sleepiness as her leg thumped silently against Kakashi's chest.

"Listen puppy. There's a change of directions. Don't tell Chimako and Kayko what Toshiko told you. Tell them that she'll be there in four hours."

Khaki stopped at this. She looked up with a puzzled look on her face. Her head tilted sideways, making one of her ears flop overonto her eye.

Kakashi had to laugh as he flipped the ear back to its original spot. "That's right. Four hours. Not one- four. Toshiko has some things to do first." he smirked evil when he put Khaki onto the floor. There was an evil glare in his eye as he walked out of the living room and into Toshiko's room.

_Knock knock._

"I'm busy!"

_Knock knock._

"Kakashi, not now!"

_Creeeaaaakkk_

"You shut that door! Kashi, what are you doing? Uuh...s.stay away...why do you have that rope? Why are you staring at me like that?...** KAKASHI!**"

_Crash._

------------------

"Let me down!" Toshiko snarled as she struggled, trying to free herself ot the knots that bound her. She was tied to a ten-foot long pole that stood straight up in the middle of the room. She would have freed herself with her knot-untying jutsu, but this knot was made of _steel, _and there were various other steel reinforcements that kept the girl pinned to the pole. This was Kakashi's favorite form of torture and punishment. He called it 'getting poled'.

"After what you did last night? No. You deserve some punishment." he folded his arms and tapped his feet, a smirk planted firmly on his face. He even slipped off his mask to show off his sly and toothy grin. "Sneaking out like that..."

"But nothing happened!" Toshiko exclaimed, wriggling around. She growled as Kakashi came near her and set his face right in front of hers. It was very close, but she still could not reach him. The siblings' noses touched as Toshiko tilted her head forward.

"How long am I going to be like this?"

"Four hours. Consider yourself lucky."

With that, the older Hatake brushed his nose against hers in a mocking fashion. It was just as if to say 'Haha, I can move, you can't.' The insult was clearly big, because Toshiko yelled and tried to swipe at him. Of course, she could not.

"See ya in four hours." Kakashi grinned and turned around, then waved as he exited the living room to go read in his room.

Toshiko sighed and hung her head down. This was going to be a long day...

--------------------

Author's Notes:

_School is killing me! D: Darn it. Sorry for not updating as much. The story continues!_

_This is probably the shortest chapter in the story, because I had to rush it a little ; _

-dance-


	15. Few More Hours

It was a long journey for the small tan dog. The minute she had escaped the house, she had gone directly to the middle of the street and sat there in wonder. How could she possibly go fetch two girls she hadn't ever seen before? Actually, she didn't really even need to see them. Just smell them. However, she hadn't had the luxury of getting a scent for Chimako or Kayko either. So far, it was a guessing game. Try to guess where they are and tell them the news. That wasn't too easy, though. Toshiko had told Khaki that the two girls lived in seperate villages- one lived in Suna and the other one...in Kiri, apparently. So one was in the Sand village and the other in the Mist village. There was no way that Khaki was going to swim across to the Mist village, yet there was a small possibility that she could make it all the way to the Sand Village. Of course, according to the dog's small knowledge of the geography, that place was over a thousand miles away. There was no way she could do it!!

"Maybe..." Khaki walked around the village. Maybe the girls didn't live where their headbands stated. Maybe they lived right here in Konoha! Toshiko sure hadn't told her anything about it, but she could find out somehow. Khaki was one of the few nin-ken! And she believed that she could do it.

So her quest began.

She ran around Konoha, barking to other dogs and asking if they had seen a tall girl with black hair, or a short one with purple hair. Every canine she met shook their head sadly and shooed her away.

Afterwards, Khaki decided to try asking people instead. She didn't know a lot of words, but she managed to get her point through by pointing at the people's hair and pointing to purple objects, then lowering her paw to signal that the person was short. The dog did the same things with Kayko's description, when she pointed at hair and a black object, then jumping up in the air and raising her paw to show that the person was tall or at least of average height. Everyone she talked to shook their heads. One person even kicked her out of his front porch after his cats began to hiss madly at her.

After about thirty minutes, Khaki groaned and slumped down in the middle of the city. "No luck." she murmured as she rolled over onto her side and stared at the ramen shop before her. Her whinings became louder and louder as she lied there in the middle of the street. The sun was overwhelming and it really got to her. Her thick fur only made it worse. Suddenly and magically, two shadows appeared over her. The whinings stopped when she turned around to look at the people who owned the shadows. She had never been happier to see a purple-haired girl and a black-haired one in all of her life.

"Look Kayko, a dog." Chimako, the purple-haired girl, said as she kneeled over to look at the small dog. Her sudden kneeling had lowered the shadow, exposing more light towards Khaki. Luckily, none of the light actually hit the dog. It was good news for the overly exhausted Khaki.

"Huh." Kayko, the black-haired girl, lookd down towards the mutt. She stared at it for a while, then gave it a small kick. "It's not dead. Who do you think it belongs to?"

"I dunno." Chimako shrugged as she tucked her hair back behind her ear. She suddenly stepped back a little as Khaki bounced up in happiness.

_"It's them! It's them! I finally found them! Actually, I didn't even find them! They found me! Me, me! Now I can tell them the news!"_ Khaki's thoughts raced happily through her brain while she raced joyously around the two girls. Her paws barely touched the ground while she ran in circles, overjoyed and extremely pleased with herself.

Kayko cringed as she saw the dog run. "It's insane."

"Toshi!" Khaki barked, trying to expand her vocabulary. She waved her paws around as she froze and sat down onto her rump. "Toshi...want to...see you."

"Toshi?" Chimako gave a puzzled look. She looked over towards Kayko, who quickly figured it out.

"Toshiko."

"The Hatake?"

"Duh."

The two kunoichi stared at the dog again, waiting for further comment. Khaki tried her best. "See you...in..." she lied on the pavement and extended all of her limbs in the air. "hours."

"In 'paws' hours?" Kayko looked confused.

"Hours!" Khaki snarled and motioned towards her paws, waving them around madly.

"What about your paws?" Chimako blinked and gently massaged her own forehead, as if it would help her understand. "You're confusing, doggy!"

Khaki frowned and looked around. She found a stick. It was a long branch with a few twigs dangling from it. That would do.

She walked over and grabbed the tree branch, then bit it clean in half. Then, she grabbed another part and bit that part as well, breaking it into a half. Now she had four pieces of the branch.

Eagerly she pointed towards the four sticks that lay clean in a row.

"Hours! Toshi want see you in hours!" Khaki bounced around. It was hard being a dog, because normal beings couldn't understand you. She knew that these weren't normal beings- she could smell their chakra levels, and it was intense. Except for the purple-haired one- she had almost no chakra! However, it was still very hard to communicate with people that didn't know what she was saying.

"I think I get it." Chimako grinned. "Toshiko wants to see us...in three hours?"

"Four." Kayko pointed out the last stick, then blinked. "Damn. We just talked to a dog."

Chimako had to laugh at this. She bent over and ruffled the puppy's pelt playfully. "Ok, I'll humor you. Where does Toshiko want to see us?"

"Park! East Park!" the young dog barked happily while her tail wagged madly from side to side. It was a great feeling, knowing that people understood you! She could have danced right there and then. In fact, that was exactly what the dog began to do. Her legs began to swing and she started to hop back and forth, supporting her weight on her left, then on her right. Khaki began to prance around happily as she chanted. "East Park! Hours!"

Even Kayko smiled a bit. "This is a crazy dog. Ok, so the Hatake wants to see us at East Park in four hours." she blinked and tilted her head. "Why?"

"No idea." Chimako shrugged. "But we should go anyway! She seems nice."

"Eh, I have nothing better to do." Kayko shrugged as well. "Sure. Hey, while we wait, let's go bug Kisame."

"Alright!"

And the two ran off. Khaki continued to dance all the way home.

------------------------------------------

"You are insane!" Toshiko snarled as she continued to helplessly yell in the lonely room. It had been an hour tied to that pole, and she hated it. How could she last three more hours of that torture? And another thing- she was starving.

"You're just going to leave me here?! Kashi! You've lost it!" the girl yelled and glared at her brother, who had taken a seat next to her and was reading his book.

"You deserve it. Have you any idea what you put me through yesterday? I wasn't worried much, but still, I hate the feeling of not knowing where you are." Kakashi flipped a page of his book and tilted his head, looking over to Toshiko with his single functioning eye. His head turned a bit more so you could see that his sharingan eye was also exposed. And of course, it wasn't surprising that his mask was off since he was inside.

Toshiko just sighed. "Look, I'm sorry...but Kiba's one of my buddies. Can't you accept that?" she looked over to her brother. He gave a cold stare. The stare clearly said 'yes, I accept it, but you're still in trouble.'

"How long do I have to be tied up?" she moaned, slamming her head back into the wooden pole. The impact caused a bit of pain and she wanted to rub it, but her hands were tied behind her back. The steel reinforcements also limited her chances of escape.

"Two hours. How about that?" Kakashi smirked as he gently shut his book.

"You're crazy."

"Two hours.

"One."

"One and a half."

Toshiko blinked and thought about it. "Done deal." she grinned, then relaxed a little. Her head hurt less when she put her head against the pole this time. A sigh escaped her half-open mouth while she tilted her head to the side to look over at Kakashi. "Kashi..."

"Hm?" Kakashi murmured as he opened up his book. He began to flip the pages slowly as if the gentle sheets of paper were a child, sleeping drowzily in his arms. His eyes wandered over to meet hers, although only his right eye was completely focused on her. "What is it?"

The young girl smiled gently, although you could see that it was a forced smile. "I know you were worried about me and stuff...and I know what you think of Kiba..but I was wondering. Didn't you ever do anything like I did? Sneak out with friends?"

The question took Kakashi by surprise. He thought for a while, then shook his head. "What friends, Toshiko? There weren't many that I befriended back in my genin, chuunin, or jonin days." he paused to comtemplate his memories, then leaned back against the wall. He slid down the wall and sat down, then brought up his legs and hugged them tight against his chest. "I only had Obito and Rin. And Yondaime, my sensei."

His head tilted down as he rested his chin on his knees. "Obito Uchiha and Rin were the only best friends I really ever had. Obito was one of my best buddies. Rin...she was just there. Many told me that she even had a crush on me." Kakashi chuckled and shook his head. "As if that was ever true. I pretty much ignored her. I wish I hadn't done that now. It's been so long...it's like I don't even remember them anymore. We used to do everything together. Then, that dreaded mission came...

"Ever since then, I've seen my sensei once..." Kakashi looked down. "I haven't seen Rin ever since that last mission, and Obito..." he froze and looked up towards Toshiko. His eyes told the rest of the tale. Obito was dead, end of story.

Toshiko now looked down and away. It was hard to stare into those lonely eyes. She felt his pity, even though she could not feel the sensations that dwelled inside the infamous Copy Ninja. Eventually, she built up the strength to look over to his side of the room.

"I..." Toshiko looked for the right words, then she sighed and flicked her hair by swiftly moving her head to the left. "I'm sorry..."

"It's already happened, Toshiko. Nothing we can do about it." Kakashi lifted his head, staring into the distance. "Now I just wait for what the future's planning for us. Both of us. All of us." he smirked, showing his sparkling, snow white teeth. "Actually, it was nice that you asked. You just killed about thirty minutes worth of time."

"Seriously?" the kunoichi's jaw dropped slightly at the thought. His speech hadn't been that long...it had only seemed like a few minutes. Not half an hour!

"So..I can get down now?" Toshiko beamed hopefully. Maybe since she had put him in a semi-good mood, he would let her down.

Kakashi slowly shut his book, then swiped the cover gently and put it in his small bag. He stood up and rubbed the back of his neck, then tilted his head to the sides to loosen the joints. He looked towards Toshiko and smiled, simply shaking his head as an answer to his question. His fingers ran through her hair softly, then ruffled it wildly before putting it back to normal again. Then, he spun around on his heel and left the room.

"You are mean." Toshiko sighed and stared into the distance. It would be a long while until she could actually do anything else. Nothing good had happened. Well, there had been one thing that had come out well from the experience. Instead of three hours waiting, it would be one and a half. Actually, it would only be one now, since she wasted about thirty minutes listening to Kakashi's words. That would be so awesome! Only one more hour!

"Awrr!" A young yelp came from the other side of the room. Khaki stumbled as she ran through the open space, then plopped down next to the pole and looked up towards Toshiko. Her tail wagged madly. "I did it!"

The young Hatake laughed. "Didya tell them when and where to go?" she grinned when she received a happy nod from her dog. "Good girl! I'll getcha a treat when I get down."

"You don't get down! You stay up!" Khaki barked, trying to be funny. She danced around the pole once, then sat down and stared up at her master. After a good stare, she stood up and left. This surprised the girl. That was it? She had just come in to say hi then leave? She wasn't even going to keep her company?

"No, Khak! Come back! Some best friend you're supposed to be!" Toshiko groaned, watching as her pup left. She sighed and shook her head.

_One more hour..._


End file.
